With the decrease of occupational gender segregation，the gradual convergence of educational level and the rate of educational return between men and women，the distribution of human capital，occupations and industries can no longer explain the trend of increasing gender wage difference in China．From the respective of family，this paper examines the influence of marriage，the division of housework and the typical family characteristics of children on the gender wage difference．Using the 2016 CFPS data，under the condition of solving endogenous problems，this paper found that marriage indirectly affects women’s wages through increasing their children and domestic working hours，and domestic working hours and motherhood have significant positive effects on women’s wage rates．Women work 17 hours housework per week on average，which reduced their weekly wage by 34%．Children reduce mother’s weekly wage by 8. 5%．Compared to unmarried women，married women work an extra seven hours of housework per week, reducing their weekly wage rate by 14%. As for men，there is a “marriage premium”effect． Oaxaca decomposition also shows that family characteristics，especially domestic working hours，are the main reasons of the gender wage gap in addition to gender discrimination．According to the heterogeneity analysis of income class，family characteristics may cause greater gender wage difference in low income class．The analysis also shows that housework has a threshold effect on both men and women，and the threshold is about 10. 5 hours．
