New Study: Successful Marriage Means Higher Income

A new study shows that married people, especially men, make more money than singles. The study’s authors go on to suggest that the decline of marriage in recent decades is central to the rising income inequality in America. They suggest that government policies to attack the marriage decline will encourage economic success, maybe.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, big names like Bill Gates have been wading into the income inequality debate, suggesting or criticizing various government economic policies. But Wilcox and Lerman believe that changing family structures is central to the issue, despite being usually overlooked.

The study is called the “For Richer, For Poorer: How Family Structures Economic Success In America,” and it was produced by lead authors W. Bradford Wilcox and Robert I. Lerman under the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

Using a regression model and a lot of data the researchers explain that family is a central issue in the inequality debate.

“Changes in family formation and stability are central to the changing economic landscape of American families, to the declining economic status of men, and to worries about the health of the American dream.”

The key findings include the following.

• Married men on average earned at least $15,900 more annually than their single counterparts.
• That economic bonus extended to children, as young men from intact families made annually $6,500 more and young women $4,700.
• Those marriage bonuses snowballed, thereby increasing income inequality, so that a married couple where the both partners came from intact families made $42,000 more than singles from single parent households.

The authors wrote in their summary that “the data strongly suggest that had marriage rates not declined substantially among parents, many more families would have attained middle-class incomes, and the inequality across families would have increased at a slower rate.”

Despite the study’s extensive data analysis, it cannot prove any causal relationship.

That is to say, Wilcox and Lerman could be showing the statistics for a variety of narratives. It could be that growing poverty reduces marriage rates because men and women don’t feel ready for marriage, and most likely children, without job prospects and a growing annual salary. It might be cheap for a bachelor to spend three months salary on a wedding ring when he has no job, but some women reject toy rings from Cracker Jacks boxes.

Then there’s the narrative that this study subtly supports, that healthy, intact marriages breed economic success. Married couples can provide support for both partners to achieve their goals at work, and give the stability of knowing that if one partner loses a job the other will be there to help. Plus, sharing living expenses in an intimate setting can lead to more savings, which in turn increases income through good investments. Going at the world as a two person team might yield advantages that single people can’t compete with.

Since the authors cannot prove that boosting marriage rates will lead to more economic success, or reduced income inequality, more research is likely needed for policy recommendations.

But that didn’t stop the authors.

They suggested that the government promote a “success sequence” of school, work, marriage, and then parenthood, in that order, and other policies to support couples to get married.

The full study on marriage, income inequality, and economic success can be found here.

[Image Credit: Jeff Belmonte/Wikimedia Commons]