Maternity, motherhood and access to contributory pensions: The case of Uruguay

Maternity and care of young children are among the primary reasons for gender‐based discrimination and formal work interruptions faced by women. We examine how maternity impacts access to contributory pensions and the amount of the first pension in Uruguay, a country with relatively high income and low informality in the Latin American context. Motherhood reduces the proportion of women eligible for full pensions by 12–60 percentage points depending on retirement age and length of the interruptions. Access disparities are greater for low‐income than high‐income women. Many women leave the formal labour market despite having previously made contributions, resulting in them not being able to satisfy eligibility conditions for contributory pensions. Maternity credits while necessary are insufficient alone to address this issue.