The instability of fathers’ co-residence with children has become an increasingly prevalent experience for U.S. families. Despite long-standing scholarship examining the relationship between fatherhood and wage advantages, few studies have investigated how variation in fathers’ stable co-residence with a child may produce temporal changes in the wage premium over the life course. Building on prior explanations of the fatherhood wage premium, I test if the wage premium grows with time since the birth of a resident child and if the premium depends on fathers’ co-residence with a child. I use marginal structural models with repeated outcome measures and data from 4060 men in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to assess the cumulative influence of co-residential biological fatherhood on wages. I find that each year of residential fatherhood is associated with a wage gain of 1.2 percent, while the immediate wage benefit to residential fatherhood is minor. Thus, the fatherhood premium is better understood as an unfolding process of cumulative advantage rather than a one-time bonus. Furthermore, the wage premium ceases to accumulate once fathers lose co-residential status with a child, which highlights the contingency of the premium on stable co-residence. Together, these findings shed light on one pathway through which family (in)stability—a phenomenon fundamentally embedded in individual life experiences—stratifies men’s wages across the life course.

中文翻译：

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成为父亲，成为父亲：美国寄养父亲的累积工资溢价调查

父亲与孩子同居的不稳定已成为美国家庭越来越普遍的经历。尽管长期存在研究父亲身份与工资优势之间关系的学术研究，但很少有研究调查父亲与孩子稳定同居的变化如何在生命历程中产生工资溢价的暂时变化。基于之前对父亲工资溢价的解释，我测试了工资溢价是否随着孩子出生后的时间而增长，以及溢价是否取决于父亲与孩子的共同居住。我使用边际结构模型和来自 1979 年全国青年纵向调查中 4060 名男性的重复结果测量和数据来评估同居生父身份对工资的累积影响。我发现，作为家庭父亲的每一年都与 1.2% 的工资增长相关，而作为家庭父亲的直接工资收益很小。因此，父亲身份溢价更好地理解为累积优势的展开过程，而不是一次性奖金。此外，一旦父亲失去与孩子的同居身份，工资溢价就不再累积，这凸显了溢价对稳定同居的偶然性。总之，这些发现揭示了一个途径，家庭（不稳定）——一种从根本上根植于个人生活经历中的现象——通过这种途径对男性在整个生命过程中的工资进行分层。父权溢价更好地理解为累积优势的展开过程，而不是一次性奖金。此外，一旦父亲失去与孩子的同居身份，工资溢价就不再累积，这凸显了溢价对稳定同居的偶然性。总之，这些发现揭示了一个途径，家庭（不稳定）——一种从根本上根植于个人生活经历中的现象——通过这种途径对男性在整个生命过程中的工资进行分层。父权溢价更好地理解为累积优势的展开过程，而不是一次性奖金。此外，一旦父亲失去与孩子的同居身份，工资溢价就不再累积，这凸显了溢价对稳定同居的偶然性。总之，这些发现揭示了一个途径，家庭（不稳定）——一种从根本上根植于个人生活经历中的现象——通过这种途径对男性在整个生命过程中的工资进行分层。