Women who have their first child before 25 or after 35 eventually close the salary divide with their husbands. However, the 10 years in between are the prime career-building years and according to recent studies, the pay of those who have their first child then, never recovers, relative to that of their husbands. The group of women who had the biggest post-baby pay gap compared with their husbands was, paradoxically, women who earned more than their husbands before having children.