This paper investigates the wage returns to schooling and actual early work experiences for young women. We use the NLSY surveys to implement a dynamic model of young women's schooling, work, marriage and fertility decisions in order to account for likely impacts on future wages. The results of the model without controlling for the decision process show a negative impact on wage based on number of children. Our full model accounts for the process through which this occurs, showing the importance for modeling these critical life decisions while also accounting for unobserved measures of ability