Money And Love: This Is The Reality Of Income In Couples, According To A Study

On November 22, 2024 it was published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility an interesting study that proposed an analysis of the income of married couples from a new perspective: consider the movements in the earnings of each member according to a long-standing relationship, instead of focusing on specific life moments.

The study, titled His and hers earnings trajectories: Economic homogamy and long-term earnings inequality within and between different-sex coupleswas directed by Allison Dunatchik, assistant professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina. The results shed new light on the idiosyncrasies of couple relationships in relation to the respective earnings of their members.

Income and relationships: a change of perspective

The novelty of the aforementioned study is its change of perspective. While previous research on the earnings of the members of a couple focused on how much the husband earned and how much the wife earned at a specific point in the life trajectory (for example, after the birth of the first child), Dunatchik’s study focuses on marital variations in long-term marriagesincluding in the analysis the variations in income that represent various vital changes.

In this way, conclusions are drawn about the relationship between gender and finances and how economic fluctuations are subject to the social instabilities of each member. In the words of Allison Dunatchik herself: “I study how couples share work and family responsibilities over the course of long-term relationships and how gender plays a role in these decisions.”

Analyzing the gains of thirty years of marriage

The study took data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1979, which includes information on couples born between 1957 and 1964, that is, in full Baby Boom. The surveys provided data on their economic, educational and social situation, making it an invaluable source for a study such as the one Dunatchik intended.

The information contained in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth It allowed the researcher to analyze how the earnings of both members of the couple evolved over the years. Specifically, 5,354 heterosexual couples were analyzed for no less than 30 years.

60% of couples had equal earnings

In light of the data, Dunatchik detected that approximately 60% of these marriages followed a pattern of egalitarian finances, which manifested itself in 3 different ways:

The first, called Dual-earner partnerconstituted approximately 50% of the total and was characterized by stable and equal earnings on the part of both members of the marriage.

The second, represented by approximately 6% of the couples analyzed, reported the model of Jointly mobile patternsaccording to which both members of the couple experienced the same or similar fluctuations in their income over time, caused by more or less the same economic and social factors.

The third pattern consisted of a Alternating earner pattern; That is, the husband and wife exchanged the position of the member with the most profits. In other words, in some periods, the one who earned the most was the husband, while in others, it was the wife. In this case, the incidence was approximately 5%.

The second and third patterns, according to Dunatchik, are mostly found in couples with lower educational and socioeconomic levels.

Marital differences between genders

The study also confirmed that gender makes an obvious difference. In 34% of cases, the economically predominant figure (the so-called in English breadwinner or “breadwinner”) was the man, while the woman was only the one who contributed the most of the couple in 5% of the cases.

Dunatchik’s analysis also concluded that the first pattern (that of man as breadwinner) coincides with couples with lower socioeconomic levels. The second pattern (the woman as the main breadwinner) coincides, in turn, with couple models in which the wife, before getting married, has a high educational and economic level.

On the other hand, the investigation shed light on the economic situation of the wives. In 55% of the cases studied, they had stable earnings throughout their marriage (a stable earning trajectory), which contradicts the general idea that women left their jobs or decreased their income after getting married. The reality, in light of the data, is that Women had a great role in the domestic economy.

Allison Dunatchik herself was surprised by the large percentage of wives who had stable and high incomes, especially when compared to the percentage of husbands who had unstable earnings (no less than 23%).

Conclusions

The innovative approach of this study sheds new light on the economic situations of couples born around 1960, and dethrones theories considered unalterable.

For example, it shows that women, after getting married, did not abandon their careers and that they even had high and stable incomes. On the other hand, 60% of couples who present the dual-earner pattern (i.e. a situation where both members bring in similar gains) is equally surprising. Another aspect that has been refuted through this study is the idea that spouses tend to maintain a stable income throughout their married life. The 23% of men with unstable earnings (that is, almost 25% of the total) show that this is not exactly the case.

In summary: more economic studies from a gender perspective are needed to clarify certain points related to gender diversity. Dunatchik herself recognizes the information bias that comes with the fact that her data comes only from sources of information. Baby Boomersso new research should be carried out on the so-called Generations Millennial and Z, which probably reflect the various social, demographic, cultural and economic changes.