pew

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Paul Taylor, Proj ect DirectorRichard Fry, Senior ResearcherDVera Cohn, Senior WriterWendy Wang, Research AssociateGabriel Velasco, Research AnalystDaniel Dockterman, Research Assistant

MEDIA INQUIRIES CONTACT:Pew Research Center sSocial & Demographic Trends Proj ect202.419.4372

http://pewsocialtrends.org

Wome n, Men and the

New Economics of Marriage

FOR RELEASE: JANUARY 19 , 20 1 0

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1

Wome n, Men and t he New Economics of Marr iage

By Richard Fry and DVera Cohn, Pew Research Center

Execut ive Summ ary

The institution of marri age hasundergone significant changes in

recent decades as women have

outpaced men in education and

earnings growth. These unequal gains

have been accompanied by gender role

reversals in both the spousal

characteristics and the economic

benefits of marriage.

A larger share of men in 2007,

compared w ith their 1970 counterparts,

are marr ied to women whose

education and income exceed their

own, according to a Pew Research

Center analysis of demographic and

economic trend data. A larger share of

women are married to men wi th less

education and income.

From an economic perspective, these

trends have contr ibuted to a gender

role reversal in the gains from

marriage. In the past, when relatively

few wives worked, marr iage enhanced the economic status of women more than that of

men. In recent decades, however, the economic gains associated w ith marr iage have been

greater for men than for w omen.

In 2007, median household incomes of three groupsmarried men, married women andunmarried womenwere about 60% higher than those of their counterparts in 1970. But for

a fourth group, unmarr ied men, the rise in real median household income was smaller

just 16%. (These household income figures are adjusted for household size and for i nf lation.

For more detail s, see the methodology in Appendix B.)

The Rise of Wives, 1 97 0 t o 2007

Share of Husbands Whose Wives Income Tops Theirs

1970 2007

4 22%

Among Married Women, Which Spouse Has MoreEducation?

1970 2007

20%

52%

28%

Husband

Wife

Same

28%53%

19%

Husband

Wife

Same

Notes: Inc ludes only nat i ve-born 30- t o 44-year-olds.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American CommunitySurvey (ACS) Integrated Public Use Micro Samples (IPUMS)

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2

Part of the reason for the superior gains of married adults is compositi onal in nature.

Marr iage rates have decli ned for all adults since 1970 and gone down most sharply for the

least educated men and women. As a result, those with more education are far more likely

than those wi th less education to be married, a gap that has widened since 1970. Because

higher education tends to lead tohigher earnings, these

compositional changes have

bolstered the economic gains

from being marr ied for both men

and women.

There also is an important gender

component of these trends. Forty

years ago, the typical man did not

gain another breadw inner in his

household when he married.

Today, he doesgiving his

household increased earning

power that most unmarried men

do not enjoy. The superior gains

of married men have enabled

them to overtake and surpass

unmarried men in their median

household income (see chart, page 3).

This report examines how changes at the nexus of marriage, income and education have

played out among U.S.-born men and w omen who are ages 30-44a stage of l ife when

typical adults have completed their education, gone to work and gotten marr ied.1

Americans in this age group are the fi rst such cohort in U.S. history to include more women

than men w ith college degrees.

In 1970, 28% of w ives in this age range had husbands who w ere better educated than they

were, outnumbering the 20% whose husbands had less education. By 2007, these patterns

had reversed: 19% of w ives had husbands wi th more education, versus 28% whose

husbands had less education. In the remaining couplesabout half in 1970 and 2007

spouses have simi lar education levels.

1 This analysis includes only the U.S. born in order to have a consistent data set over time. See methodology inAppendix B for f ur ther explanation. Unless specif ied, all data pertain to this specif ic age and nativi ty group.

Women Now Are Majority of College Graduates

%

53.5

36.0

64.0

46.5

0

25

50

75

100

1970 1980 1990 2000

Women M en

2007


Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Ameri can Commu nit y Sur vey (ACS)Integr ate d Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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3

Along the same lines, only 4% of

husbands had w ives who brought

home more income than they did

in 1970, a share that rose to 22%

in 2007 (see chart, page 1).2

This reshuff ling of marr iage

patterns from 1970 to 2007 has

occurred dur ing a period w hen

womens gains relative to mens

have altered the demographic

characteristics of potential mates.

Among U.S.-born 30- to 44-year-

olds, women now are the

majori ty both of college graduates

and those who have some college

education but not a degree.

Womens earnings grew 44%

from 1970 to 2007, compared with

6% growth for men. That sharper

grow th has enabled w omen to

narrow , but not close, the

earnings gap with men. Median earnings of full -year female workers in 2007 were 71% of

earnings of comparable men, compared w ith 52% in 1970.

The national economic downturn is reinforcing these gender reversal trends, because it has

hur t employment of men more than that of w omen. Males accounted for about 75% of the

2008 decline in employment among pr ime-working-age indivi duals (U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, 2009). Women are moving toward a new milestone in which they constitute half

of all the employed. Their share increased from 46.5% in December 2007 to 47.4% in

December 2009.

Overall, married adults have made greater economic gains over the past four decades than

unmarr ied adults. From 1970 to 2007, their median adjusted household incomes, the sum of

financial contr ibutions of all members of the household, rose more than those of the

unmarried.

2This report uses the measure of total income contr ibuted by each spouse, most of w hich comes from individualearnings.

Median Adjusted Household Income,by Gender and Marital Status, 19 70- 200 7

In 2007 $

1970 1980 1990 2000

Mar r ied men Not mar r ied menMar r ied w omen Not mar r ied w omen

$56,951

$30,597

$45,785

$46,669

$74,642

$48,738

$65,849

$73,774

2007

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomes adjustedfor household size and then scaled t o ref l ect a thr ee-per son household.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Ameri can Commu nit y Survey (ACS)Integr ate d Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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4

Educational attainment plays an important role in income, so a central focus of this report is

to analyze economic data by level of schooling. Through this lens, too, married people have

outdone the unmarr ied. The higher their education level, the more that adults household

incomes have ri sen over the past four decades; w ithin each level, marr ied adults have seen

larger gains than unmarried adul ts. Among marr ied adul ts at each education level, menhad larger household income increases than did women. Those who gained most of all

were marr ied male coll ege graduates, whose household incomes rose 56%, compared with

44% for marr ied female coll ege graduates.3

For unmarried adults at each level of education, however, mens household incomes fared

worse than those of w omen. Unmarried women in 2007 had higher household incomes

than their 1970 counterparts at each level of education. But unmarr ied men w ithout any

post-secondary education lost ground because their real earnings decreased and they did

not have a wifes wages to buf fer that decline. Unmarried men who did not complete high

school or who had only a high school dip loma had low er household incomes in 2007 than

their 1970 counterparts did. Unmarr ied men w ith some college education had stagnant

household incomes.

Unmarr ied men with college degrees made gains (15%), but the gains were not as great as

those for unmarr ied w omen with coll ege degrees (28%). In fact, household incomes of

unmarried men with college degrees grew at half the rate of household incomes of marr ied

men wi th only a high school

diploma33% versus 15%.

There is an important except ion to the

rule that married adul ts have fared

better than unmarried adul ts from

1970 to 2007. Married women w ithout

a high school diploma did not make

the same gains as more educated

women: Their household incomes

slipped 2% from 1970 to 2007, whi le

those of their unmarried counterparts

grew 9%. The stagnant incomes of

married w omen w ithout high school

diplomas reflect the poor job prospects of less educated men in their pool of marr iage

3 All income trends in this report are based on data that have been corrected for inf lation and household size. SeeAppendix B for an explanation of w hy adjusting for household size is desirable and a di scussion of the method usedto do so.

Household Income Growth for Married CollegeGraduates, by Gender, 19 70 t o 2007

%

44

56

College

graduates

M ar r ied w omen M ar r ied men

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomesadjusted for ho usehold s ize and then scaled to re f lect a three-person household.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American Community Survey

(ACS) Integrated Public Use Micro Samples (IPUMS)

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5

partners. These less educated marri ed w omen now are far less likely than in the past to

have a spouse who w orks77% did in 2007, compared with 92% in 1970.

Patterns by Education Level

Americans are considerably better educated than they w ere four decades ago, which has

enabled many adults to upgrade the educational credentials of their spouses. Among adults

without high school educations and those with high school diplomas but no further

schooling, a larger share in 2007, compared with their counterparts in 1970, had spouses

with more education than they had.

Among adul ts with some college education, the pool of potential w ives has expanded more

rapidly than the pool of potential husbands. In this group, a higher share of men in 2007

had wives wi th more education than they d id28% had a wi fe wi th a college degree in

2007, compared with 9% in 1970. Women w ith some college education in 2007 were less

likely to have a husband w ith a college degree than their counterparts were in 197021%versus 39%.

Among coll ege-educated adults, marr ied men are markedly more likely to have a wife who

is coll ege educatedonly 37% did in 1970, compared with 71% in 2007. Coll ege-educated

married women, though, are somewhat less likely to have a college-educated husband

70% did in 1970 and 64% did in 2007. (The figures di ffer f rom the perspective of husbands

and wives because some U.S.-born 30- to 44-year-olds have spouses who are older, younger

or foreign born.)

Of course, marr iage does not i ncrease household financial resources if the spouse does not

work. Here, too, there has been great change. In 1973, only 45% of all women ages 16 and

older were in the labor force. By 2007 this share had increased to 59%.4 Much of this increase

is attr ibuted to marri ed w omen and to women with higher levels of education (Juhn and

Potter, 2006). Furthermore, a sharp rise in w orkplace activi ty was reported among women

married to higher-income men (Mul ligan and Rubinstein, 2008). Among U.S.-born adults

ages 30-44, most married men did not have a working spouse in 1970; now, most do.

Marr ied w omen, on the other hand, are somewhat less likely than their 1970 counterparts to

have a husband w ho works.

4 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. See ftp:/ / ftp .bls.gov/ pub/ special.requests/ lf/ aat2.txt

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6

Decline of Marr iage

The shifts in the educational attainment and

earnings capacity that men and women

bring to marriage have played out against

fundamental changes in the institu tion ofmarr iage itself . These days, Americans are

more likely than in the past to cohabit ,

divorce, marry late or not marry at all . There

has been a marked decline in the share of

Americans who are currently married.

Among U.S.-born 30- to 44-year-olds, 60%

were married in 2007, compared with 84% in

1970.

There is an education component to this

change: The decline in marr iage rates has

been steepest for the least educated,

especially men, and smallest for college

graduates, especially w omen. Coll ege

graduates, the highest earners, are more

li kely today to be marr ied than are

Americans with less education69% for

adul ts w ith a college degree versus 56%

for those who are not a college graduate.

That was not the case in 1970, when all

education groups were about equally

li kely to w ed. Among coll ege-educated

men, 88% were married in 1970, compared

with 86% of men wi thout a college

education. Among women, the

comparable 1970 fi gures were 82% and

83%.

Thus, Americans who already have the

largest incomes and who have had the

largest gains in earnings since 1970

college graduateshave fort if ied their

A Smaller Share of Adults Are Married

% current ly m arr ied

84

77

69

65

60

1970

1980

1990

2000

2007

Notes: Inc ludes only nat i ve-born 30- t o 44-year-olds. Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American CommunitySurvey (ACS) Integrated Public Use Micro Samples (IPUMS)

Marr iage Decline s Most among ThoseWit hout a College Degree


83

82

86

88

56

69

56

69

Not a col lege

graduate

College

graduate

Not a col lege

graduate

College

graduate

1970 2007

Women

Men



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7

financial advantage over less educated

Americans because of their greater

tendency to be marr ied.

Race Patte rns

There are notable di fferences by race in

the education, marr iage and income

patterns of U.S.-born adults ages 30-44.

Black marriage rates, already lower than

those of w hites in 1970, have dropped

more sharply since then, especially for

the least educated. Only 33% of black

women and 44% of black men were

married in 2007.

Although black men and w omen had

higher household income grow th than

men and women overall , the sharp

decline in marriage rates among blacks

hindered growth in their incomes.

Among black women w ith high school

educations, household i ncomes actuall y declined from 1970 to 2007, reflecting a change in

the composit ion of this group from majority marr ied (with the higher incomes that

accompany this status) to majori ty unmarr ied.

Racial Differences in Share of AdultsCurrently Married, 1 970 and 2007

%

86

67

62

33

1970

2007

Whit e Blac k

Women

88

63

74

44

1970

2007

Men



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8

About t his Repor t

This report presents trends in educational attainment and marriage patterns by gender and

the attendant changes in the economic status of adult men and w omen since 1970. The

findings focus on native-born 30- to 44-year-olds at f ive di fferent points in t ime. The

analysis is largely based on data from the Decennial Census micro data fi les of 1970, 1980,

1990 and 2000 and the comparable U.S. Census Bureau 2007 American Community Survey

(ACS). Analysis of data from a Pew Research Center survey was provided by Wendy

Wang. The charts were prepared by research assistant Daniel Dockterman. Paul Taylor ,

di rector of the Pew Research Centers Social & Demographic Trends project, provided

edi torial guidance. Daniel Dockterman and Gabriel Velasco did the number checking, and

Marcia Kramer copy-edi ted the report.

This report is organized as follows: The first section examines trends in earnings and

household incomes for men and women by education levels and marital status. The nextsection explores how patterns have changed in the likelihood of marrying a spouse of lower

or higher education, a top-income spouse, a working spouse and a spouse whose income

exceeds their own. The thi rd section analyzes the changing l ikeli hood of being married at

all , by education group. The four th section briefly looks at t rends in education levels by

gender. The last section reports on how these trends di ffer for black Americans. Appendix

A contains addit ional f igures and tables. Appendix B provides details on the data analysis

and methodology.

A Note on Ter minologyAll references to whites and blacks are to the non-Hispanic components of those

populations.

Native born refers to persons who are U.S. cit izens at birth.

College graduate refers to a person who has completed at least a bachelors degree.

Persons whose highest degree is an associates degree or have completed some college

credits but not obtained a bachelors degree are included in the some coll ege education

category.

Household income refers to household income adjusted for the number of members in

the household. See Appendix B for the manner in w hich an indiv iduals household income

is adjusted for household size.

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9

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10

I. Economic Gains: Differences by Marriage and Gender

Married college-educated Americans have made larger economic gains than other groups

over the past four decades. Their inflation-adjusted individual earnings and household

incomes have risen more sharply than those of other groups. Beneath this overall pattern,

though, are striki ng d ifferences by gender among U.S.-born Americans ages 30 to 44.

Women made greater gains in indivi dual earnings than men over this period, reflecting

both their upgraded educational credentials and broader economic changes that favor the

sectors in which they tend to work. One result: Among U.S.-born unmarr ied adul ts ages 30-

44 at every level of education, womens median household incomes rose more than mens

from 1970 to 2007.

But the opposite is true among U.S.-born married adults in this age bracket. At every l evel

of education, married men in 2007 had more growth in their household incomes, compared

with their 1970 counterparts, than marr ied women did over the same time period. Why?The income-producing quali ties of w ives have improved more than those of husbands.

Earnings Trends

The higher their level of education, the larger the percentage gains that workers saw in their

median earnings from 1970 to 2007. Comparing the genders, U.S.-born women ages 30-44,

Trends in Median Real Annual Earnings for Full-Year Workers,

by Gender and Education

in 2007 $


Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Ameri can Com muni ty Survey (ACS) Int egrat ed Publ ic Use Micro Samples(IPUMS)

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11

who started from a smaller base than U.S.-born men in that age group, made larger gains

(or had smaller l osses) than men did at each level of education.

Median earnings of both female and male workers5 who did not f inish high school w ere

lower i n 2007 than those of their counterparts in 1970, but w omen (-2%) lost less ground

than men (-21%). For adults wi th onl y a high school d ip loma, women in 2007 earned a

median 5% more than their counterparts in 1970, whi le men earned a median 16% less. The

median earnings of w omen with some coll ege education grew 17% from 1970 to 2007, but

earnings for men w ith some college education declined 10%. Among college graduates,

median earnings were 30% higher for w omen in 2007 than in 1970 and 13% higher for men.

It should be noted that men in all education categories still earn more than women. Some of

thi s earnings gap, according to research, results from men working in higher-paying f ields

and w orking longer hours than women. Women also are more li kely to leave the work force

to care for children; they also tend to work in lower-paying industries and f irms and areless likely to hold unionized jobs. These factors do not account for the enti re gap, how ever.

Statistical studies have not conclusively quantif ied the role that pay d iscrimination may

play.

However, the male-female earnings gap has narrowed since 1970.6 Among U.S.-born

Americans ages 30-44 who worked for the full year, womens median earnings in 1970

($22,750) w ere 52% of mens ($43,750). In 2007, womens median earnings ($32,834) w ere

71% of mens ($46,173).

Four decades ago, U.S.-born w omen ages 30-44 with a college degree earned less than menwith a high school diploma. By 1990, their earnings exceeded those of male high school

graduates. By 2000, the median earnings of female college graduates exceeded those of men

with some college education.

Household Incomes

The higher their educational credentials, the more sharply that U.S.-born adul ts ages 30-44

have seen their median adjusted household incomes grow over the past four decades.7

Incomes of college graduates grew more from 1970 to 2007 than did incomes of adults

without a college degree, and they in turn prospered more than those with only a high

school education. Americans who did not f inish high school fared worst of all .

5 These are median real annual earnings, in 2007 dollars, for full -year w orkers, both full time and part ti me.6Many studies document the convergence in the gender earnings gap. See, for example, Institute for Womens PolicyResearch (2009), Blau and Kahn (2000), and M ul ligan and Rubinstein (2008).7Following research on measuring the economic w ell-being of the household, adjusted household income isshorthand for household income adjusted for the number of persons in the household. See Appendix B for furtherdetails.

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12

But in comparing household i ncomes of U.S.-born adul ts who w ere 30-44 in 1970 and 2007,

marriage and gender also play important roles. Adul ts who are married have done better

than those who are not, at each level of education.

Among men, the 2007 household incomes of unmarr ied adul ts without a high school

diploma or w ith only a high school diploma were notably lower than those of their

counterparts in 1970 (see the Appendix A table on page 26). The household incomes of

unmarried men with some college education had barely changed from those of their 1970

counterparts. But married men at these levels of education made gains over this period.

Among male college graduates, both those who are unmarri ed and those who are marr ied

made household income gains, but married men had larger increases.

Among women, marr ied women w ith a high school diploma, some college education or a

college degree had larger i ncome gains over four decades than did their unmarried

counterparts. Among women without a high school diploma, married women actually lost

ground, whi le the incomes of unmarried w omen w ere 9% higher than those of their 1970

counterparts. A key reason for this except ion to the rule of marr ied people making greater

gains is that the less educated men w ho are potential husbands to less educated w omen had

poor job prospects and a greater-than-average decli ne in labor force parti cipation dur ing

this period. As discussed short ly , this occur red even though less educated women reached

Trends in Median Adjusted Household Income,

by Gender and Education

in 2007 $

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomes adjusted for household s ize and then scaled t o ref l ect a

thr ee-person household.Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Am eri can Commu nit y Survey (ACS) Int egrat ed Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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higher up in the education distribution for their husbands in 2007 compared w ith 1970

(Rose, 2004).

Married Men Compared wit h Married Women

Comparing the genders among marr ied adul ts by education group, male college graduates

in 2007 had median adjusted household incomes that were 56% higher than those of their

counterparts in 1970. That surpassed the 44% gains of married female coll ege graduates

over the four-decade period (see Appendix A tables).

For marr ied adults with some college education or married adults with a high school

diploma, mens median household incomes also grew more than w omens from 1970 to

2007. Recall that during this same period, median earningsof men i n these education groups

decli ned, whi le those of w omen in those education groups grew.

Among adul ts w ith some college, marri ed mens median household incomes gained 39%

over those of their 1970 counterparts, and those of married w omen gained 22%. Among

high school graduates, marr ied mens median household incomes grew 33%, compared

with 21% for marr ied women.

The gender contrast i s even more stark among marr ied adul ts without high school

educations. The incomes of married men in this group were 10% higher in 2007 than were

those of their 1970 counterparts. But household incomes of comparable women declined

2%. Mens median household incomes caught up to and surpassed those of women duringthe 1970-2007 peri od among marr ied adul ts without a high school education.

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II. W ho Marr ies Whom?

The spousal characteristi cs of A merican marriages have changed over the past four decades

as a growing share of women have graduated college, gone into the work force and moved

into high-paying careers. The education and earnings of potential wives have improved

more sharp ly than those of potential husbands, and this is associated w ith a gender reversal

in the pattern of who weds whom.

For men, the changes over the past four decades have provided a larger pool of well-

educated, f inancially secure spouses. This has been a part icular economic boon to college-

educated husbands, who over the past four decades have become increasingly l ikely to

marry the highest-income wives. By contrast, college-educated wives are less likely than

their counterparts four decades ago to be married to the highest-income husbands. Among

all married couples, wives contri bute a growing share of the household income, and a rising

share of those couples include a wi fe who earns more than her husband.

Half of U.S.-born Americans ages 30-44 are married to someone whose education level is

the same as their ow n, a proportion that has not changed much over four decades. What

has changed is the composit ion of differently educated husbands and wives. In 1970, more

husbands education exceeded their w ives than the other way around. In 2007, more wives

had educational credentials that exceeded those of their husbands than the reverse.8

In 1970, 28% of U.S.-born marr ied women ages 30-44 had husbands with more education

than they had, and 20% had husbands with less education. In 2007, 19% of w ives had

husbands with more education than they had, and 28% had husbands with less education.(Told f rom the husbands point of vi ew, the statistics are similar.)

The story varies somewhat, however, by education group. Because of the general rise in

education levels, both men and women w ithout a high school diploma are much more

li kely now than in the past to marry someone with more education than they have (Rose,

2004). This is a change from four decades ago, when most had spouses whose education

matched theirs. Men (73%) are more li kely than women (63%) to marry more educated

spouses in this group.

8This repl icates the findings of Schwartz and Mares (2005) noted study. They report that the tendency for men tomarry women wi th l ess education peaked in the mid-1970s. Although a majority of marriages in 2007 includedspouses wi th the same level of education, when partners dif fer educationally, it is more li kely that the wi fe is bettereducated than the husband.

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High school graduates also are more likely to have spouses who outrank them

educationally than did their counterparts four decades ago, and the changes have been

larger for husbands. In 2007, about half of married men with a high school dip loma had

wives who were better educated; among high school-educated w ives, 38% had husbands

whose education exceeded theirs. In 1970, the reverse pattern was truea greater share of

w ives were outranked educationall y by their husbands (27% versus 13%).

Among Americans wi th some college education in 1970, only 9% of married men had a wi fe

who was a college graduate, but by 2007 that share had r isen to 28%. For married w omen

with some college education, 39% had a college-educated husband in 1970, but the share

declined to 21% in 2007.

Among U.S.-born spouses ages 30-44 with college degrees, in 1970 women w ere more l ikely

than men to be marr ied to someone with a coll ege degree. Now, the reverse is true, because

Educational Comparison bet we en Married Educational Comparison betw een Marrie d

Women and Their Spouses, 19 70 and 20 07 Men and Their Spouses, 19 70 and 20 07

% %

33

63

27

38

39

21

67

37

45

53

22

42

70

64

28

10

39

37

31

36

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

Husband more educ ated

Same level of educat ionWife more educ ated

Less than high school

High school graduate

Some college

College graduate

24

6

68

25

63

29

57

27

64

44

23

47

37

71

43

73

13

50

9

28

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

Husband more educ at ed

Same level of educ at ionWife more educ ated



Some college

College graduate

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Numbers may not t otal due t o rounding.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Am eri can Commu nit y Sur vey (ACS) Int egrat ed Public Use Micro Samp les (IPUMS)

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the share of men w ith a coll ege-educated w ife has risen w hi le the share of w omen w ith a

college-educated husband has fallen. In

1970, 70% of college-educated wives had

a college-educated husband; in 2007,

64% did. In 1970, 37% of college-educated husbands had a college-

educated w ife; in 2007, 71% did.

Top-Income Wives

One way in w hich college-educated

married men have gained f inancially is

that they increasingly are likely to be

married to the highest-income wives.

This was not alw ays so. In 1970, U.S.-

born men ages 30-44 at al l l evels of

education were about equally l ikely to be

married to a woman whose income was

in the top half of incomes for all wives of

U.S.-born men in this age group. About

half of men in each education group

were married to a woman w hose income was in the top half for all w ives, and about a

quarter of men at each level of education w ere marr ied to a woman whose income was in

the top quarter of all w ives.

By 2007, that pattern had shifted notably, to the advantage of the best-educated men: 54% of

college graduates or men with some college education had a wife whose income was in the

upper half of those for all wives. Among men with high school diplomas, 47% were

married to these top-income wives. Among men w ith less than a high school education,

only 30% were.9

The redistr ibution was even more dramatic for husbands of w ives with incomes in the top

quarter of w ives incomes. In 2007, 35% of coll ege-educated men had a spouse in the top

quarter, compared with 25% of men with some college education, 17% of high schoolgraduates and 8% of men with less than a high school education.

9Numerous studies have examined the relationship betw een w omens education and mari tal status and husbandincome; see, for example, Lefgr en and McIntyre (2004) and Jepsen (2005). Less attention has been paid to therelati onship between mens education and the characteristics of their w ives. Sweeney and Cancian (2004) fi nd thatwomens earning pow er is an increasingly important determinant of her husbands occupational status and earningscapacity.

Best-Educate d Husbands Increasingly Likelyto Have Highest-Income Wives

% husbands, by educat ion, whose wives i ncomes

are in the top half of al l wives incomes

53

51

52

48

30

47

54

54

Less than high sch ool

High scho ol graduate

Some college

College graduate

1970 2007



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Top-Income Husbands

College-educated women were more

li kely than less educated women to have

a top-income husband both in 1970 and

2007. However, as the pool of w ell-educated women has expanded more

rapidl y than the pool of w ell -educated

men, a smaller share of college-educated

women w ere marr ied to top-income

spouses in 2007 than was the case four

decades earlier.

In 2007, 68% of college-educated married

women had a spouse whose income was

in the top half of those for all husbands.

In 1970, 78% did. There also is a

shrinking share of college-educated

wives whose husbands are in the top

quarter of earners40% in 2007,

compared w ith 54% in 1970.

The li kelihood of having a top-income husband declined even more sharply for w omen

without a college degree. This is due in part to the grow th in the number of w omen w ith

college degrees, who are more financially desirable as marriage partners.

Among women with some college education, 70% in 1970 were married to a man whose

income was in the top half of all husbands of U.S.-born women ages 30-44, but only 49%

were in 2007. For high school graduates, 57% were marr ied to a man in 1970 whose income

was in the top half for all husbands, compared with 38% in 2007. For w omen w ithout a high

school diploma, 34% were married to a man in 1970 whose income was in the top half for

husbands; in 2007, only 21% were.

Which Spouse Makes More

Wives Without College Degrees HaveSharpest Decline in Share of Highest-IncomeHusbands

% wi ves, by educat ion, whose husbands incom esare in t he top half of al l husbands incomes

34

57

70

78

21

38

49

68



Some college

College graduate

1970 2007

Notes: Inc ludes only nat i ve-born 30- t o 44-year-olds res iding inhouseholds.


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The share of households in w hich the wife brings in more money than the husband has

increased sharply in recent decades, as womens earnings have grown faster than mens.

Education makes a dif ference in the likelihood that one spouse wil l make more than the

other. Among U.S.-born marr ied adul ts ages 30-44, both male and female coll ege graduates

are the least l ikely to have a spouse who brings in more income than they do.

In 1970, 89% of these female college graduates made less money than their husbands; in

2007, 70% did. For w omen with less education, 93% to 95% had a husband with a higher

income in 1970. In 2007, 77% to 79% did.

Among married male college graduates, only 18% had a wife whose income was higher

than theirs in 2007. For men in lesser education groups, nearly a quarter had a wife whose

income was higher. In 1970, about 5% of husbands in each education level had a wife who

generated more income than they did.

The data on w hich spouse brings in more income do not match exactly when seen from the

perspective of w ives compared with that of husbands. One reason is that spousal

characteristics do not match exactly; w omen tend to marry men who are older, for example.

Not everyone marr ies someone who is at the same level of education. Men are more likely

than women to marry someone who outranks them educationally, while the opposite now

is true for w omen.

Wives Now Less Likely to Have Husbands withMore Income Than They Have

% of w ives, by wif e s educat ion, w it h higher- incomehusbands

93

95

94

89

79

79

77

70



Some college

College graduate

1970 2007



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Spousal Share of Income

Not only is there a grow ing share of couples in w hich w ives make more money than their

husbands, but among all couples wives contr ibute a grow ing share of household income.

This is true for all education groups.

Seen from the perspective of w ives, in 1970, married w omen at all levels of education

contr ibuted only a tiny f raction of their total household incomes, ranging from a median 2%

for w omen w ithout a high school

diploma to 6% for w omen with a

college degree. By 2007, college-

educated w ives contr ibuted a median

36% and w omen w ithout high school

diplomas contr ibuted a median 20%.

For high school graduates and women

with some college education, the

median contribut ions were 27% and

31%, respectively.10

Seen f rom the perspective of husbands,

the share of i ncome contr ibuted by

wives also grew dramaticall y between

1970 and 2007. Wives of college-

educated men have contr ibuted the

lowest sharea median 26%,

compared with 29% for w ives of men

with less than a high school education

and 33% for w ives of other men. This

comports w ith data showing that

earnings of men wi thout college

degrees have fallen since 1970, so

incomes of their w ives would make

more of a dif ference to their total

household income.

10 In addition to both spouses contr ibut ions to a marr ied couples household income, other sources includegovernment transfer payments and income of other residents of the householdchildren, for example. Other sourcesplay a more prominent role in less educated households than in coll ege-educated households. See Appendix A fordetail s of both spouses contr ibut ions by education level.

College-Educated Wives Contribute Most toMarried Couples Household Incomes

% of household income contr ibut ed by wif e, by hereducation level, 2007

20

27

31

36

Less than h igh sch ool


Some college

College graduate

Notes: Inc ludes only nat i ve-born 30- t o 44-year-olds.Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American CommunitySurvey (ACS) Integrated Public Use Micro Samples (IPUMS)

Share of Income Contributed by Wife Varies

by Husband's Educat ion Leve l% of household income contr ibut ed by wif e, by herhusbands education level, 2007

29

33

33

26

Less than h igh sch ool


Some college

College graduate


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These figures include wives with no income, so they are lower than they w ould be if they

included only working w ives.

Working Spouses

Being marr ied and having a working spouse is one way to bolster economic well -being, as

shown by the household income figures cited earl ier in this report. Over the past four

decades, male labor force participation has fallen and female participation has risen.

Husbands are somewhat less likely to be working in 2007 than their counterparts were in

1970, while the reverse is true for wives.

Among U.S.-born adults ages 30-44,

the least educatedthose lacking a

high school dip lomaalso were the

least l ikely in 2007 to have a spouse

parti cipating in the labor force. Thatis a change from the past.

Among marr ied men, college-

educated husbands had been the

least l ikely to have a wi fe in the work

force33% did in 1970, compared

with 41-43% of men in the other

education categories. The situation is

di fferent these days. In 2007,husbands who did not complete high

school w ere the least l ikely to have

wives in the work force (62%). The

share is higher for college-educated

husbands (69%), and somewhat

higher sti ll for husbands wi th a high

school diploma (73%) or some coll ege

education (75%).

Among married women, more than

90% of w ives at all levels of

education had a working spouse in

1970. But a gap has developed in

favor of w omen w ith more

education. In 2007, 95% of college-

Tre nds for Marr ied Adults in Likelihood ofHaving a Working Spouse, by Education Leve l

%

92

96

96

97

43

41

42

33

77

95

62

73

75

69

92

88



Some college

College graduate



Some college

College graduate

1970 2007

Women

Men


Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American Community Survey(ACS) Integrated Public Use Micro Samples (IPUMS)

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educated marr ied w omen had a spouse in the labor force, compared w ith 77% of marr ied

women w ho did not complete high school. The 2007 figures for w ives with a high school

diploma or some coll ege education w ere 88% and 92%, respectively.

Roles wit hin Marr iage

Although this report

concludes that economic

gains from marriage have

accrued more to men than to

women, there is evidence

from other research that

womens growing economic

clout gives them more

power w ithin marriage.

A Pew Research Center

survey in 2008 found that

wives who earn more than

their husbands are more

li kely to have decision-

making power, especially

over major purchases and

household f inances.

According to the survey, in

couples where the husband

makes more money, spouses

are about equally l ikely to say that husbands (35%) and wives (36%) make most decisions

regarding household finances. However, in couples where the wife makes more, spouses

say that only 21% of husbands make most decisions on household f inances, compared w ith

46% of w ives.

Household Financial Decision Making in Married Couples

% saying w hich spouse usuall y has t he f inal say when

Husband earns more Wife earns more

28 %

35%36 %

Wife

Share

Husband

33%

21%46%

Wife

Husband

Share

Questi on wor ding: When you and your spouse make decisions about managi ngthe household f inances, w ho has the f inal say? The responses were com pi led t o mainly w i fe when a husband says i t is most l y his spouse or a w i fe says i t ismost ly her, and mainly husband w hen a husband says i t is most l y him or awi fe says i t is most l y her spouse. Share combines the re sponses of somet imesme/ somet imes my spouse or we dec ide together .

Note: Based on 1,125 marr ied couple s in Pew Social & Demographic Trendsgender survey conducted June 16-July 16, 2008 (N=2,250). Couples of Husbandearns more inc lude cases where the husband is the sole earner in t he fami l y ,and couples of wi f e earns more inc lude cases wher e the w i fe is the soleearner in t he fami l y . In couples wher e the husband earns more, 1% ofrespondent s did not answer or did not know .

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III. Likelihood of Marriage

Americans are less likely to be married

than they were four decades ago. They

marry for the first time at older ages than

they used to. A larger share of couples

cohabit rather than marry. The share of

divorced adults has risen.

The declining tendency to be marr ied has

been sharpest among the least educated. A

wide gap has developed in recent decades

between the most and least educated

adul ts in the proportion currently marr ied.

The decline in marriage rates has beensteepest for the least educated men and

smallest for college-educated women.

In 1970, U.S.-born Americans ages 30-44 without a high school diploma were nearly as

likely to be marriedor ever to have been marriedas college graduates. Not so today.

Nearly seven-in-ten college graduates among U.S.-born 30-to-44-year-olds were marr ied in

2007, in contrast to less than half of adults in that age group without a high school dip loma

(see chart on page 20).

In 2007, only 43% of w omen and 45% of men without a high school education w eremarried, compared with 78% of women and 84% of men in 1970. Among high school

graduates, 55% of w omen and 54% of men w ere married i n 2007, compared with 86% and

88%, respectively, in 1970. Among those wi th some coll ege education, 60% of w omen and

62% of men were marr ied i n 2007, compared with 84% of w omen and 87% of men in 1970.

Among coll ege graduates, 69% of both men and w omen were marr ied in 2007, compared

with 82% of women and 88% of men in 1970.

Less educated Americans are not only the least likely to be currently married, but they also

are more li kely to be divorced. Even w hen looking at w hether people ever have beenmarr ied, how ever, a gap remains betw een the most and least educated Americans.11 Among

college-educated A mericans in this 30-44 age group, 80% of w omen and 77% of men have

11 See Rose (2004) and Lefgren and M cIntyre (2004) for an extended discussion on the relationship between educationand marital status, li kelihood of ever marrying, and marital stabili ty.

A Smaller Share of Adults Are Married


84

77

69

65

60

1970

1980

1990

2000

2007


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been marr ied at some point . That compares with 71% of w omen and 65% of men who did

not graduate from high school.

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Importance of a Working Spouse

The importance of marriage in

providing an economic advantage

shows up in an analysis of the

likelihood of having a workingspouse for all U.S.-born 30- to 44-

year-old men and w omen by

education group, not just those who

currently are married. The impact is

particularly str iking for the least

educated Americans, reflecting

changes in marriage rates and the

marriage market as well as declining

male labor force parti cipation.

In 1970, most w omen at all levels of

education had a working spouse,

including 72% of w omen without a

high school d ip loma and 79% of

those with a college degree. But in

2007, only 33% of w omen w ithout a

high school diploma had a working

spouse, compared with 65% ofwomen w ith a college degree who

did.

For men, coll ege graduates were

more likely to have a working spouse

in 2007 than in 1970, but men without

a high school d ip loma w ere less

li kely to have a working spouse.

Among men w ith college degrees, 48% had a work ing spouse in 2007, compared with 29%

in 1970. Among men who did not complete high school, 36% had a working spouse in 1970,

a higher share than among male college graduates. In 2007, 28% had work ing spouses, a

lower share than among male college graduates.

Share of Adults Curr ent ly Married, by Genderand Education, 1 970 and 2007

%

78

86

84

82

84

88

87

88

43

55

60

69

45

54

62

69



Some college

College graduate



Some college

College graduate

1970 2007

Women

Men


Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American Community Survey(ACS) Integrated Public Use Micro Samples (IPUMS)

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IV. Gender Tr ends in Education

The broad changes in marr iage and income trends go hand in hand w ith an historic gender

reversal in the likelihood to graduate college. Women became the majori ty of newly minted

college graduates in the 1981-1982 school year and accounted for 57% of those who gained

their undergraduate degrees in the 2006-2007 school year. Among U.S.-born adul ts younger

than their mid-40s, women hold the

majori ty of college degrees.

Compared w ith their counterparts

in 1970, both U.S.-born men and

women ages 30-44 are more highly

educated by farnot only more

li kely to have graduated high

school, but also more likely to haveattended college or to hold a college

degree. Fewer have failed to

complete high school.

Women have climbed the education

ladder more rapidly than men. By

2000, women in this age group had

surpassed men in their likelihood to

attend college. By 2007, this age

group had a higher share of female

college graduates than male

graduates, reversing the historic

pattern. In 2007, 66% of U.S.-born

women ages 30-44 had attended or

graduated from college, compared

with 59% of men in that age group.

Wi th the except ion of the 1990-2000

period, mens coll ege graduation rates continued to ri sebut not as rapid ly as womens.

In general, as the chart on this page shows, the share of 30- to 44-year-olds with less than a

high school education has declined sharplyand equall y for men and women. In a reversal

of the pattern that existed in 1970, men are now more li kely than women to hold only a

high school diploma (33% to 27%). That is because a higher share of w omen than men have

at least some college education.

Education, by Gender, 1 97 0-20 07

%

35

36

19

18

9

10

7

8

6

45

34

45

35

34

31

31

34

27

11

12

19

20

33

31

35

30

33

9

18

17

26

24

28

27

27

33

7 33 29 30

Women

M en

Women

M en

Women

M en

Women

M en

Women

M en

Less t han high sc ho ol High sc hoo l gr adu at e

Some c o llege Col lege gr aduat e

1970

1980

1990

2000

2007

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-bor n 30- to 44-year-old s. Number s maynot to t a l due to rounding.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American Community Survey(ACS) Int egr at ed Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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V. Marriage, Income and Education Tre nds for Black Adult s

This section explores similarities and differences in patterns of education, income and

marr iage for U.S.-born blacks and other adul ts ages 30-44.12

Among black adul ts, the sharp decline in the marri age rate from 1970 to 2007a steeper

drop than for the population overallis a key trend in explaining the changing

circumstances of mens and womens lives. Among black women, 62% were married in

1970, versus 33% in 2007. Among black men, 74% were married in 1970, compared with

44% in 2007.

In contrast to the population overall, there was a marri age gap by education level in 1970

for black w omen: Females with college degrees were more likely to be marri ed in 1970 than

those with less education. That i s stil l the case. Among black men, marri age rates were

about the same for all education groups in 1970, but by 2007, coll ege graduates were far

more li kely to be married (55%) than men who had not completed high school (27%).

Financiall y and educationally , black men and women overall have made greater gains than

other groups. Their education l evels have risen more sharply. A mong black women, 57% in

2007 had attended or graduated

from collegethe same share as

those who in 1970 had not

graduated from high school.

Propelled by this educational r ise,

median adjusted householdincomes for all black men and for

all black women have grown more

rapidl y than those of the

population overall .

Household Income Trends

However, the decli ne in marr iage

rates among black adults hindered

growth in their householdincomes.This can be seen in an

analysis of household income

12 Of al l U .S. resident black adul ts in this age group, 88% in 2007 were born i n the United States, compared w ith 98% in1970.

Median Adjuste d Household Income Growt hGreatest for Black Men and College Graduates

in 2007 $

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomes adjustedfor household size and then scaled t o ref l ect a thr ee-person household.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Ameri can Commu nit y Survey (ACS)Integr ate d Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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grow th for adul ts at each level of education.

For black men and women with some college education or with college degrees, household

incomes did not r ise as rapidly from 1970 to 2007 as they d id for the population overall.

Black w omen w ith high school educations actuall y lost ground; they had lower median

household incomes than their 1970 counterparts, reflecting the change in the composition of

this group from majority married to majority unmarried.

Earnings and i ncomes for black adults, although lower than for the population overall, have

displayed simil ar patterns by gender and education over the past four decades. Mens

earnings have declined for all education groups except for college graduates. Womens

earnings have gone up in real termsincluding for women without a high school diploma,

an exception to the pattern for the overall population. Among college graduates, earnings of

women have risen more than those of men, echoing the pattern for the population overall.

Looking at household income, black married men overall have seen greater gains than

unmarried men. Household incomes of black married women and unmarr ied women rose

by about the same amount. This difference persists when household income gains are

analyzed by level of education: Unmarr ied black men lost more ground, or gained l ess,

than comparable marri ed men at each level of education. Married women gained more than

unmarried women at each level of education, except among w omen w ithout a high school

diploma.

Comparing the Spouses

For marr ied U.S.-born blacks ages 30-44, the likelihood of having a work ing spouse fell

more sharply for black w omen than for all women, and it rose less sharply for black men

than for all men. How ever, the combination of poor job prospects for the least educated and

the declining marriage rates overall has depressed the likelihood that all U.S.-born black

Americans ages 30-44 will have a working spouse. Only 11% of all U.S.-born black women

in this age group without a high school diploma and only 19% of black men lacking a

diploma had a working spouse in 2007. The comparable figures for all women was 33% and

for all men 28%.

Among blacks who are marr ied, the patterns of spousal education and income differsomewhat from those of the general population. In part , this reflects a long-standing

pattern of higher education levels among black w ives, compared with their husbands, and

of black w omens longer history of high labor force parti cipation, compared with other

women.

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Looking at educational simil ari ty of husbands and wives, spouses in 2007 were less likely to

be similarly educated than they were four decades ago, in contrast to the stabil ity of this

measure for the population overall . In 1970, 58% of black w ives and 57% of black husbands

were marr ied to someone with the same level of education; in 2007, that was true for 46% of

wives and 48% of husbands.

The historic pattern of higher education levels of black wives has intensif ied over t ime. In

1970, there were more marriages in w hich black w ives were better educated than their

husbands than the reverse; this is the opposite of what w as then the pattern for the

population overall . In 2007, a thi rd of black wives were more educated than their husbands,

a higher share than for the population overall .

Unl ike wives overall , black w ives wi th a college degree were more likely in 2007 than in

1970 to have a college-educated spouse, and those with some coll ege were as likely to have

a college-educated spouse. Wives at other levels of education also improved theirhusbands education quality, sometimes more than did wives of other races. For example,

black w ives with a high school dip loma were more than tw ice as likely to have a husband

with some college education in 2007 as in 1970. Black husbands also made gains in their

w ives educational credenti als.

In addit ion, college-educated black wives were more likely to have a top-income husband

in 2007 than in 1970 (52% had a husband w ith income in the top half of al l husbands in

2007, compared with 42% in 1970). College-educated black husbands were slightl y less

likely to have a top-income wife in 2007 than in 1970. Both t rends are the opposite of those

in the population overall.

Marr ied black women in 1970 contr ibuted higher shares of household income than did

married women overall, so there has been less dramatic change in their contributions.

College-educated w ives provided 44% of household i ncome in 1970 and 47% in 2007. Wives

with a high school diploma contri buted 21% in 1970 and 38% in 2007.

Education Levels Improve

The hefty improvement in spouses education levels is in part a consequence of the

disproport ionately rapid improvement in educational attainment among blacks, comparedwith the population overall , from 1970 to 2007. Education l evels of black Americans,

however, have not caught up to those of w hites.

Among U.S.-born blacks, men and women ages 30-44 in both 1970 and 1980 were equally

li kely to have attended or graduated from college, while for the population overall , men

had higher rates in those years. Black women began pulling ahead in 1990, earl ier than

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women overall . By 2007, 57% of U.S.-born black w omen in this age group had attended

(36%) or graduated from (21%) coll ege, well ahead of the 48% of black men who had

attended (31%) or graduated (17%).

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References

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Burkhauser, Richard V., Amy Crews Cutts, Mary C. Daly and Stephen P. Jenkins. Testing

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Lefgren, Lars, and Frank McIntyre. The Relationship betw een Womens Education and

Marr iage Outcomes. Provo, UT: Bri gham Young University Department of

Economics.

Lewis, Susan K., and Valerie K. Oppenheimer. Educational Assortative Mating A cross

Marr iage Markets: Non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, D emography, vol. 37,

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Mul li gan, Casey B., and Yona Rubinstein. Selection, Investment, and Womens Relative

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N ielsen, Helena Skyt, and M ichael Svarer. Educational H omogamy: How Much Is

Opportunities?, The Jour nal of H uman R esources, vol. 44, no. 4 (2009).

Rose, Elaina. Education and H ypergamy in Marriage Markets. Seattl e, WA: University of

Washington Department of Economics (March 2004).

Schwartz, Christine R., and Robert D. Mare. Trends in Educational Assortative Marr iagefrom 1940 to 2003, Demography, vol . 42, no. 4 (November 2005).

Sweeney, M egan M ., and Maria Cancian. The Changing Importance of White Womens

Economic Prospects for Assortative Mating, Jour nal of M ar r iage and Famil y, vol. 66,

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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (James Marschall Borbely). U.S. Labor Market in 2008:

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Appendix A: Additional Tables and Charts

Tre nds in Median Adjuste d Household Income for Women,

by Education and Marital Status

in 2007 $

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomes adjusted for household s ize and then scaled t o ref l ect athr ee-person household.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Ameri can Commu nit y Survey (ACS) Int egrat ed Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

Trends in Median Adjusted Household Income for Men,

by Education and Marital Status

in 2007 $



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Median Adjusted Household Income, by Education, Gender and Marital Status,1970-2007

in 2007 $

Coll ege Graduat es Some Coll ege

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1970 1980 1990 2000

Mar r ied men Not mar r ied menMar r ied women Not mar r ied women

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1970 1980 1990 2000


High School Graduat es Less t han High School

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1970 1980 1990 2000


0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1970 1980 1990 2000

Mar r ied men Not mar r i ed menMar r ied women Not mar r i ed women

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-bor n 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomes adjusted for household s ize and t hen scaled t o ref l ect athree- person household.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Amer ican Comm unit y Sur vey (ACS) Int egrat ed Public Use Micro Samp les (IPUMS)

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Trends in Spouses Contribution to Household Income, by Gender andEducation

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-bor n 30- to 44-year-old s. Incomes adjusted for household s ize and t henscaled to ref lect a thr ee-person household.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) Integrated Public Use MicroSamples (IPUMS)

Trends in Median Real Annual Earnings for Full-Year Working Blacks,by Gender and Educational Attai nmentin 2007 $

Notes: Inc ludes only nat i ve-born 30- t o 44-year-olds. Incomes adjusted for household s ize.


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Trends in Median Adjusted Household Income for Black Women,by Educational and Marit al Stat usin 2007 $



Trends in Median Adjusted Household Income for Black Men,by Educational and Marit al Stat usin 2007 $


Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Ameri can Commu nit y Sur vey (ACS) Int egrat ed Publ ic Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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Share of Black Husbands with More Incomethan T heir Wives, by Wives Education%

88

88

83

63

68

68

65

56



Some college

College graduate

1970 2007



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Educational Comparison bet we en Married Educational Comparison betw een Marrie dBlack Wome n and The ir Spouses, Black Men and The ir Spouses,1970 and 2007 1970 and 2007% %

22

71

16

37

13

14

78

29

36

53

20

41

42

46

47

10

67

45

58

54

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

Husband more ed ucated

Same level of educat ionWife more educ ated



Some college

College graduate

31

6

63

27

52

38

64

22

52

43

23

50

48

62

36

78

17

51

14

23

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

1970

2007

Husband more educ at ed

Same level of educ at ion

Wife more educ ated



Some college

College graduate

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Numbers may not t otal due t o rounding.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Am eri can Commu nit y Sur vey (ACS) Int egrat ed Public Use Micro Samp les (IPUMS)

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Education, by Gender, for Blacks, 1970-2007

%

57

61

33

34

15

18

11

12

9

10

30

26

40

36

37

40

36

43

34

43

7

7

17

18

32

29

37

31

36

31

6

6

10

11

15

13

16

13

21

17

Women

M en

Women

M en

Women

M en

Women

M en

Women

M en

Le ss t han high sc ho ol High sc hoo l gr ad uat e

Some c o l lege College gr aduat e

1970

1980

1990

2000

2007

Notes: Inc ludes only nat ive-born 30- to 44-year-old s. Number s may notto ta l due t o rounding.

Source: Decennial Censuses and 2007 Am eri can Commu nit y Sur vey (ACS)Integr ate d Publi c Use Micro Sampl es (IPUMS)

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Share of Black Married Adults wit h WorkingSpouses, by Education, 1 97 0 and 2 00 7

%

86

91

92

93

54

57

63

66

58

71

76

78

81

89

76

83



Some college

College graduate



Some college

College graduate

1970 2007

Women

Men



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Appendix B: Data Sources and Met hodology

Data

The analysis uti l izes the Integrated Publ ic Use Micro Samples (IPUMS) of the 1970, 1980,

1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses and the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS). The

ACS is the largest household survey i n the United States, with a sample of about 3 mil li on

addresses. It is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and covers virtually the same topics as

those in the long form of the Decennial Census. Documentation on the IPUMS is available

at ht tp:/ / usa.ipums.org/ usa/ index.shtml. The 1970 data are a 3% sample of the

population. The 2007 data are a 1% sample of the population. The 1980, 1990 and 2000

census samples are 5% samples of the popu lation. However, to speed computation, non-

Hispanic whites were randomly subsampled, so the white populations in these three years

are 0.5% samples. The minority populations in these three years were 5% samples. Given

these

sampli ng rates, the unweighted sample sizes for native-born 30- to 44-year-olds resid ing in

households are as fol lows:

The analysis is restr icted to persons residing in households because household income isdefined only for such persons. The vast majority of native-born 30- to 44-year-olds (98% in

2007) l ive in households. The analysis focused only on the native born because there is

evidence that mari tal couples often meet in school or that educational institut ions function

as marr iage markets (Nielsen and Svarer, 2009). This suggests that i f w e want to explore

U.S. marriage markets we should focus on adults educated in the U.S. Whi le some

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immigrants are partially or completely schooled in the U.S., restr icting the analysis to

native-born adults ensures that w e are examining U.S.-educated adul ts. Lefgren and

McIntyre (2006) also restrict their analysis to the native born. This requirement does,

however, limit our abil ity to produce specif ic analyses for A sian- and H ispanic-origin

adults in this age group, because most l iv ing in the U.S. are foreign born.

Note that although the analysis is restricted to native-born adults between the ages of 30

and 44, this does not imply that the adults spouse is either native born or necessari ly in that

same age group. The marr ied adul ts in this analysis across the sexes are not necessaril y

married to each other, although most are. The married women tend to marry older men, so

some of their husbands are older than 44. Marr ied men tend to marry younger w omen, so

some of their wives are younger than 30. The fact that married persons ages 30-44 are not

necessarily married to each other explains why one occasionally obtains a slightl y di fferent

understanding of phenomena when examining outcomes for wives versus husbands.13

The Census Bureaus questionnaire has changed since 1970, and thus a number of

comparabil ity issues ari se. In 2000 the question on racial identi ty enabled respondents to

report more than one racial classif ication. To bridge the old and new racial categories, we

uti li zed the IPUM S RACESIN G variable. Details are available at http:/ / usa.ipums.org/ usa-

action/ variableDescrip tion.do?mnemonic=RACESIN G. In 1990 the Census Bureau altered

the question on educational attainment from years of school completed to highest degree

completed. The old and new educational classif ications were bri dged by using the IPUM S

EDUCREC variable. Detail s are available at http:/ / usa.ipums.org/ usa-

action/ variableDescrip tion.do?mnemonic=EDUCREC. The 1970 census file does notinclude a measure of total household income. As directed by the IPUMS documentation,

total household income for 1970 was obtained by summing the personal incomes of all

members of the household ages 15 or older.

A very convenient feature of the IPUM S data is its ability to associate the spouses

characteristics for married adul ts.

Methodology

The earnings reported refer to the earnings of ful l-year workers, that is, those who

worked at l east 50 weeks in the year prior to the interv iew. Analyses of the gender pay gap

typically examine the earnings of ful l-year, full -time workers (for example, Blau and Kahn,

13 As an example, the fi gure on page 1 of the report indicates that in 1970, 20% of wives were more educated than theirhusbands and that the incidence of w omen marry ing less educated men rose to 28% by 2007. This is based onexamining the nature of the marr iages of 30- to 44-year-old native-born w ives. A lternatively, we can assesseducational matching by examining the marriages of 30- to 44-year-old native-born husbands. In 1970, 21% of thehusbands had w ives who were better educated than they were. By 2007, 27% of husbands had better educated w ives.

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2000, and Institute for Womens Poli cy Research, 2009) to compare homogenous groups of

workers in terms of labor market effort . Unfortunately , analyses of earnings using

Decennial Census data cannot be restri cted to full-time workers because the 1970 census

does not have information on usual hours worked per week.

Economic status is measured by total money income. Because individuals in a household

share resources within it , the adult s household income rather than that persons indivi dual

income is used to measure well -being. However, an indi vidual in a $50,000 household with

more members is presumably less well off than a person in a $50,000 household w ith fewer

members. So the household income measure ut il ized adjusts household income for the size

of household.

One solut ion i s simply to divide household income by the size of the household to obtain

household income per capi ta. The shortcoming of this procedure is that it does not

recognize scale economies in the household or the notion that tw o can live cheaper thanone.

The analysis in this report assumes that an adul t i n a tw o-person household w ith a total

household income of $50,000 is better off than an adult in a one-person household w ith an

income of $25,000.

The extent of scale economies in the household is a matter of judgment. A common scale

factor is an adjustment parameter of 0.5, or the assumption that a tw o-person household

requi res 1.4 times the income to be as equall y well off as a one-person household

(Burkhauser, Cutts, Daly and Jenkins, 1999).14

Our method assigns each adul t his/ heradjusted household income where

Adjusted household income = Household income / (Household size)0.5

The adjusted household income and earnings figures were deflated using the research

series of the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U-RS) to obtain real or inflation-adjusted amounts.

The U.S. Census Bureau also uses this price index seri es to deflate nominal incomes. In theDecennial Census, the earnings and household income refer to the prior calendar year; the

14 In the household equivalence literature, adjusted household income = Household income/ (Household size)adjustment paramenter

The adjustment parameter ranges betw een 0 and 1. If an adjustment parameter of 1 is assumed, adjusted householdincome equals household income per person and no economies of scale are allowed for. A lternatively, i f theadjustment parameter is set to 0, adjusted household i ncome equals household income and w e would be assumingall ind iv iduals wi th the same household income are equally well off regard less of the size of their household.

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2000 census, for example, asked respondents to report their earnings for calendar year 1999.

So the pr ice index for 1999 was uti l ized to inflate 1999 earnings to 2007 dol lars. Monetary

amounts in the American Community Survey are sli ghtly di fferent. The ACS ascertains

income over the prior year. But the ACS is a rol ling survey, collecting information from

respondents in each month from January 2007 to December 2007. Therefore, the incomedata span the months from January 2006 to November 2007. The average of the CPI-U-RS

for 2006 and 2007 was utili zed to deflate the 2007 ACS incomes and earnings.

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