A recent European study has found that getting married may not boost a man’s earnings despite popular belief. Carried out by researchers at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences (TUK) and the University of Munich in Germany, the research included data taken from more than 4,000 males in the USA to see if married men really make more money.
This has been the result of many studies over the past years, particularly in America, where a large body of evidence exists to suggest that there is a “masculine marital salary premium.”
This has often been attributed to the fact that after marriage, the man focuses on his career, while the woman supports him by taking care of the children and household among other things.
Study co-author Dr. Volker Ludwig, however, begs to differ. He finds one problem with these results is determining whether there really is a cause and effect relationship. Can one really assume that marriage helps men attain higher income because they become more productive, or are higher salaries the reason they get married to begin with?
It’s definitely a good question. It seems results so far have been based on causal studies, in which the causal relationship was interpreted inaccurately. To investigate further, the team of researchers used new statistical methods to analyze the responses gathered from the participants, who answered questions about their family life and career in the past three decades.
Unlike previous studies, the findings showed no direct relationship between marriage and earnings.