For love or money: Why married men make more
August 27th, 2007 by moniesWhy does this premium occur? Some attribute it to employer discrimination. Others believe that married men make more money because marriage makes them more productive, while still others say that highly productive men are more likely to be married.
Employer Discrimination?
A common perception is that employers’ bias may be responsible for the fact that married men earn higher wages. According to this theory, employers take a man’s marital status as a signal of how stable or responsible he is and discriminate accordingly. Alternatively, the employers might, either consciously or unconsciously, give preference to married men, all other things equal, when considering promotions and raises on the grounds that the married employee has a family to support.
This kind of behavior, like most discrimination, is hard to demonstrate. If one believes, however, that the social ideas of the importance of marriage in the United States have changed (for example, marriage no longer implies the responsibility to support a family), it might be worthwhile to examine the wage premium over time. Indeed, economists McKinley Blackburn and Sanders Korenman reported in a 1994 study that the marital wage premium decreased by 10 percentage points between 1967 and 1988. Because the marital wage premium has decreased over time, it is possible that employer bias has, in fact, played a role and that changing social norms have led to a decrease in the premium.
Does Marriage Make Men More Productive?
Another popular theory is that marriage makes men more productive through specialization. Some economists argue that it is efficient for one spouse to specialize in market production-a job that is paid a wage– while the other specializes in tasks relating to the household.2 One spouse, therefore, can devote more effort to work-related responsibilities if the other spouse is there to take up the slack at home. If a man spends less time on housework after he is married, then it makes sense that he would see an increase in his wages because the extra time and effort spent at work would increase his productivity and promotion chances.
But is there much difference between married men and single men when it comes to time spent on household chores? A study in 2000 by Joni Hersch and Leslie Stratton says no. They argue that while marriage does seem to make men more productive in the market (i.e., men begin making higher wages after marriage), household specialization does not seem to be the cause. They find little difference between married and unmarried men in the time they spend on home production.
If the productivity from marriage itself is not the result of decreased hours spent on housework, as Hersche and Stratton suggest, then where does that improved productivity come from? Because the earnings of divorced or separated men are higher than those of never-married men, the added productivity that accompanies marriage must be of two kinds: (1) productivity from the marriage itself and/or (2) advantages that remain even after the marriage is dissolved. Korenman and David Neumark argue in a 1991 study that the wage premium earned by divorced or separated men is attributable to the advantages gained while married. Their evidence is that wages grow more slowly in the years of divorce or separation.
On the other hand, economist Lawrence Kenny asserts in a 1983 study that a large portion of the wage premium for married men is due to the additional training, education or experience occurring during years of marriage, which would presumably still be effective when the marriage ends.
Do More Productive Men Many?
Some economists have considered the possibility that the causality is reversed: Married men tend to make more money because the traits that make a man a high wage earner are also the traits that make him a good marriage partner. After all, the qualities listed as desirable for mates are often synonymous with desirable characteristics for an employee: responsible, honest, mature, logical, intelligent and efficient. Perhaps the tendency to take on responsibility at work indicates a tendency to take on responsibility and stability in his personal life. In an interesting twist, there is evidence that physical attractiveness-which is normally associated with desirability as a mate-also tends to have a positive effect on wages.3
Author: Chiodo, Abbigail J
Posted in Uncategorized |