The Married Man Wage Gap

wtknight · 2021-02-01T19:29:33+00:00

This is not at all surprising to me - my ex-h got a raise when we got married, and it was explicitly tied to his marital status

That sounds strange to me. Would his employer take his raise away if you divorced him?

I think that most of the time, married men make more than single men either because they are indirectly respected more because their bosses know that they are married "family men," or because men who want to get married are generally more responsible in general and are harder working because they know that they have a family that they need to help support.

Demasii · 2021-02-01T20:35:38+00:00

Employers has bias toward married men. Marriage is a status signal for responsiblity.

Matt_Door · 2021-02-01T20:33:36+00:00

Married guy has way more to lose, so he works harder and is more invested. Married guy works way more overtime I bet, and likely the biggest reason for the gap. Flip side, I think married men are taken more seriously and thought of as more responsible.

Aldabruzzo · 2021-02-01T20:51:06+00:00

I'm not surprised married and divorced men earn more than never married men.

The main incentive for men's work is that others depend on him. If a man has no one depending on him, he has little incentive to earn more money than he needs to support himself and buy some fun toys. And maybe a sugar baby. Why should he try to earn so much money? He doesn't need it, and he doesn't have any reason to work that hard.

He also doesn't have to be or act "respectable" like a married man, or an older divorced man with children. He's not a husband. He's not a father. He's just himself, accountable to and responsible for no one other than himself in his personal life. All he has to do is keep his head down and earn what he needs to survive, and he's OK.

Married men are paid more money not only because they work harder, but also because they're more stable, dependable and responsible. Single men tend to job hop. Married men and especially married fathers are less likely to quit after the company has invested time and money training them. Married men are easier for management to control, because they've been fitted with "golden handcuffs" - they're making more money there than they could anywhere else, they need every penny of what they earn, they need to keep their jobs, and so they'll do what management demands.

Married men project a more favorable public image, particularly if they work in the professions. Never married men in the professions are viewed as dissolute, irresponsible, unstable, or possibly gay.

LowCreddit · 2021-02-01T20:51:46+00:00

Men who make more are more likely to be married. In addition, married men spend far, far more and are therefore incentivized to make more.

CrestfallenWolf · 2021-02-02T07:10:44+00:00

Earning 11% more to keep 50% less. Assuming its true, still a bad deal.

BonjourReturn2 · 2021-02-01T19:37:23+00:00

Married one will earn more since they have also to support partialy their partner. A single man may have lower living standard than the one his partner ask for.

And the graph say about 5% difference if you take the same age category. So it is not really that different. Might be other factors etc. But my point stand. Men who are never married might have lower living standard (because it is what suits them without someone trying to push it) so they need to earn less.

alwaysonalongtrip · 2021-02-01T20:51:10+00:00

When my blue collar brother in law got married he got a $1/hour raise and another dollar per hour for each kid. Maybe that's how they do it in male dominated fields but I've never seen anything like that in tech.

ALSO, if i had a free servant at home I would probably be a better employee. So I can kinda see it.

LooseIndication · 2021-02-01T20:58:43+00:00

For marriage, women select men either richer, or with higher earning potential, so that makes obvious that married men have to be richer, but that doesn't means that "marriage made them richer", it means the richer men are more desired for marriage.

Spartan_Hoplite · 2021-02-01T22:39:25+00:00

You confuse the causal relationship. Women select men who earn more or have more earning potential for marriage. Therefore, they are married because they earn more, not the other way around. Unmarried men are unmarried because they earn less, not the other way around.

Here is a study which refutes the "marriage premium" argument

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122418784909

SonicBackScratcher · 2021-02-01T20:36:39+00:00

Thoughts? Comments? Rage?

As a married man (with kids) I have more responsiblities and therefore more need for money and therefore more motivated.

If I were single and childless, I'd earn just enough for me and my hobbies and be fine.

Its the one argument for MGTOW I agree with. If you can't handle stress in life, don't bring kids into it. Like the economy is about to tank hard. If I were on my own? BFD I have my internet and my fishing an whatever else I want, I just don't have as much spare cash. As a dad and husband, I have 2 mouths to feed (my wife is more than pulling her weight these days so nothing to complain about there) a mortgage on a house I wouldn't need, college coming up for both, and a staff to pay.

I'd be bored shitless as a MGTOW but damn it would be easy living.

KazROFL · 2021-02-01T21:58:35+00:00

11% is a pretty shit premium for the added responsibility of heading a household..

Sid_Insidious · 2021-02-01T20:03:53+00:00

Married men need that extra 11% because their wives are at home controlling 80% of the households discretionary spending. WOMEN will tell you it's because they are BURDENED with things like shopping for kids clothing, household consumables and groceries. But they also blow the budget on home fashion, shoes, decorating for parties, and all kinds of other "women gotta have it" expenses that men, when living alone, don't bother with.

Yes, it's sure nice to have a Christmas table set up like in those fancy "Rich Bitch Living" magazines. Oh, how we all APPREICATE all the effort she put into that display of living art. Come January, the bills come rolling in for THOUSANDS of dollars worth of stuff that will go into basement storage and probably won't even get used again. Then, the quibbling over money turns into fights over money, and when a man disagrees with a woman about money, two things happen (a) her pussy dries up and (b) the bedroom goes dead.

Married men have less money than single men.

Divorced men have NO money.

I'll take 11% less and have WAY MORE, thanks.

sleuthoftrades1 · 2021-02-01T20:35:38+00:00

Paid more for the same job? I find that hard to believe, or are they doing that thing like they do for the gender wage gap where they say "why don't female teachers make as much as male hedge fund managers"?

If it isn't for the same job, I would say it would be in job choices. If I had a family to support, I would take a job I hate to make more money - while I would make less money to work a better job if it were just me.

If it is for the same job, I would think it is because married men put in more effort. It is like this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvfZnCNFPJQ. Married men expend more energy at work while single men expend more energy on being sociable or trying to get laid, or just having fun.

passepar2t · 2021-02-01T21:18:29+00:00

Men who get married might be the same men who get paid more for whatever reason.

JohnDoe9564 · 2021-02-01T21:48:40+00:00

"Fathers don’t earn more than their childless peers anymore; they earn less. Depending on the variables being considered, in 2018, men with children earned as much as 13% less as those without kids."

https://t.co/BT8G5c3Eer

daproest1 · 2021-02-02T00:25:26+00:00

Doesn’t surprise me. Everything we do, whether directly or indirectly, is for women. If there were no women, there’d be no luxury cars. No nice houses. No workaholic men. We don’t need much.

DollarAkshay · 2021-02-02T04:29:17+00:00

My guess is that Married men are more confident in asking for a raise because they have a legitimate excuse of having to support a family compared to a single guy who has to make a case for his self worth within the company.

Just a guess. Could be wrong.

PPD_IS_CANCER · 2021-02-02T05:39:34+00:00

Married men have to pay for a household. Unmarried men have to pay for themselves.

abaxeron · 2021-02-02T07:31:46+00:00

Married men who don't earn more than their single counterparts don't stay married for long.

stats135 · 2021-02-01T19:44:27+00:00

Wage is tied to productivity. Married men are simply likely to be more productive. A single man is more likely to go into work with a hangover from trying to get laid at the bar last night, while his marriage counterpart has sex on tap at home.

geometersbane · 2021-02-01T20:21:52+00:00

All these vain attempts at convincing men to marry money-gobbling parasites will not work. Let it go.

Ok_Swim_2691 · 2021-02-02T03:56:10+00:00

This type of job studies never account for hours worked. Single men don't need to do overtime the way a guy saving up for a ring/marriage/kid on the way is forced to.

Single men also save more money by not having to buy house decorations and other totally necessary doodads women just can't live without and will nag a man to death into getting for them.

relish5k · 2021-02-02T04:43:48+00:00

It helps to have someone at home making you dinner, steaming your shirts, and acting as a sounding board / giving impartial advice, for example.

AnarchoNAP · 2021-02-02T05:29:23+00:00

The divorced stat is inexplicable to me.

Married makes sense. Married men have someone at home, or someone neglecting their own job to run home, to take care of things so they can spend more time focusing on their career.

Also some men wait until they are at a certain point to get married and me making shit are less likely to marry.

Jakes1967 · 2021-02-02T09:52:46+00:00

This is not at all surprising to me - my ex-h got a raise when we got married, and it was explicitly tied to his marital status

Obviously not forgetting the time, when married men were paid more, promoted faster etc. Yes, it was completely legal, up to the early 1980s, to pay married men more than single men.

Today it's more to do with incentive and motivation. Married work longer hours and are more likely to stay in crappy well-paying jobs.

Frosty-Gate-8094 · 2021-02-02T13:18:00+00:00

The Bar chart they used, clearly shows that the gap persists at both age groups.

That means, men who never married, WERE earning lower and CONTINUE to earn lower than married/divorced men.

The data they used, confirms the third hypothesis, that men who already earn more are more likely to get married.

The increase in wages for all three categories is proportional to the original income.

So, I would conclude that men who earn lower, continue to earn lower. Irrespective of whether they marry or not. But they are certainly less likely to get married.

TLDR: So, to conclude.... Women marry men who already earn well or those with potential to earn well in future. (like a medical intern, for example). So, if you compare cross-sectionally the incomes between married and never-married men, you will find an income gap.
Correlation does not mean causation.

Carkudo · 2021-02-02T13:53:26+00:00

That's not a study, that's an article with a bunch of numbers and a graph that doesn't explain the methodology behind it.

As much as I'm aware of the discrimination against single men, especially older ones, an actual WAGE gap makes me skeptical. What's more realistic is an expendable income gap - single men pay a higher tax rate than married men, cannot split expenses and are passed over for career advancement, so they end up with less free money.

InternalOperator1 · 2021-02-03T22:45:36+00:00

I've had employers straight up tell me they won't pay me a higher salary because I don't have a mortgage / wife / kids to support and they think it means I won't put in the best effort and also means I'm a flight risk if they try and squeeze me.

TheLotusLover · 2021-02-01T19:43:54+00:00

Its probably richer men in general are the ones to get married at all nowadays, doesnt say much to any advantage as i know plenty of poor married dudes that saw no raise for getting married and are poorer for it since they all divorced

goatismycopilot · 2021-02-01T20:55:39+00:00

Especially in the US where healthcare is tied to employment and babies and birthing are expensive a married man is more likely to be perceived as loyal and responsible. Single men are more likely to say F this and bolt and live without healthcare and other benefits. I would add this tends to be true of more the UMC type mena

Emervila · 2021-02-01T19:42:07+00:00

Thoughts?

Why Women mostly marry up? why is that? a big mystery

LittyKitsune · 2021-02-01T21:13:08+00:00

This was always common sense to me, but I also grew up in a culturally conservative part of the South. Having a wife and kids is often a prerequisite for being taken seriously in workplace culture there. Obviously this sucks for infertile and childfree couples, and single people who don't necessarily want to get married.

My dad moved to a new office once, my mom pointed out that the family pictures he had in his old office were outdated so they agreed to take new ones. Yeah it only took all of two days for people to start asking my dad about his marriage, if he was having problems at home, etc. etc. so he had to put the old pictures back up. When we went to a work function I kept getting surprise and comments on how "grown up" I looked lol.

BurdensomeCount · 2021-02-02T00:23:25+00:00

9% more? Still not worth the risk of 50% or more of your income being sucked off by your ~~leech~~ wife.

TheBookOfSeil · 2021-02-02T01:30:15+00:00

It makes sense to me. Society rewards and encourages people who benefit the system. Getting married and having a family means a lot of things to the system so those who are promoting the continuance of the system get more benefits and incentives to do so. It may not be seen like it is in these statistical analyses, but it is evident if people have the awareness to notice.

This also explains any female wage gap that may exist as well.

AutoModerator · 2021-02-01T19:25:00+00:00

Attention!

You can post off topic/jokes/puns as a comment to this Automoderator message.
For "CMV" and "Question for X" Threads: Parent comments that aren't from the target group will be removed, along with their child replies.
If you want to agree with OP instead of challenging their view or if the question is not targeted at you, post it as an answer to this comment.
OP you can choose your own flair according to these guidelines., just press Flair under your post!

Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

JohnDoe721 · 2021-02-01T20:50:22+00:00

Does it cover the hours worked? Are married men working more hours or are these salary positions.

flapperfemmefatale · 2021-02-01T21:00:10+00:00

Your experience seems pretty gross and obviously discrimination.

bigdaveyl · 2021-02-01T21:06:17+00:00

Correlation is not causation

801735 · 2021-02-01T21:30:30+00:00

So-uh,... the more% they get,... how much do you think are they happy to pay to just have a couple of minutes off per day? You know, that luxury single dudes swim in when we're not swimming in pussy juice?

GarglinMay0 · 2021-02-01T23:24:38+00:00

Married guy is probably older

orbitaldecayed · 2021-02-02T00:41:33+00:00

[deleted]

CharlieGordan · 2021-02-02T01:14:26+00:00

When you factor in hours worked, jobs worked, experience, how likely a person is to negotiate for better wages, the wage gap comes to around 3 cents. Sure you can say the 3 cents indicate the gender wage gap does exist, but 3 cents versus the 23 cents women claim they are wronged of are nowhere near the same. Even leftist dudes(I am too) like John Green say it doesnt exist.

And this makes sense because married men are more likely to stay commited to their careers so would more likely to be given a promotion.

2021-02-02T23:37:52+00:00

Get married so you can get paid more.

Karmanger · 2021-02-03T15:30:45+00:00

Married men need to make more to support their families. Therefore they would be the first to ask and push for raises as well as OT. Adding to that companies do tend to discriminate and give promotions to family men over non-family men as family men are more afraid of losing their job then un-attached men.

I'm willing to bet the un-married men in this study have more than enough to support themselves and live a comfy life.

ThrowawayCOVID999 · 2021-02-03T21:47:16+00:00

11% isn’t worth it.

the-lone-squid · 2021-02-04T10:11:20+00:00

So? They still broke more often than not.

Married men make more because they work more and are more invested. I’ve turned down promotions my whole life because without a wife and kids i have way more money then i need.

Why work harder for no reason?

NigroqueSimillima · 2021-02-04T20:54:30+00:00

my ex-h got a raise when we got married, and it was explicitly tied to his marital status

No, he didn't. The company would be sued to into oblivion. Even asking marital status during a job interview can get them in trouble.

Married men don't make more because they're married, they get married because they make more. That's why men still make more after divorce. Broke men never get married.

Title	The Married Man Wage Gap
Author	SmurfESmurferson
Upvotes	16
Comments	129
Date	February 1, 2021 7:25 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/labms9/the_married_man_wage_gap/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/the-married-man-wage-gap.742695 https://theredarchive.com/post/742695