How Pregnant Workers Can Take Time Off Without Hurting Their Careers

By Julie Feinberg

It's all well and good to want to have it all with a successful career and family life. But most women who want children at some point face a big dilemma: How do you take time off with the new baby without killing your chances for advancement and increased earnings?

Of women who go "off-ramp," in the U.S., 74 percent get back into the workforce and fewer than half return to full-time jobs, according to a 2005 report released by the Center for Talent Innovation (then known as the Center for Work Life Policy), a New York-based think tank. The effect on earnings is profound: On average, women lose 18 percent of their earning power when they off-ramp; that figure increases to 28 percent in business and banking/finance.