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American women’s incomes are increasingly on par with their spouses, and many are becoming the primary breadwinners in their households. Yet, the responsibilities of housework and childcare have not diminished.
In 2020, Lauren Schneider (State College, Pennsylvania) became the only person in the family with an income, after her husband Tom was laid off when the pandemic broke out.
Three years later, when they had a new house and welcomed a baby girl, the PR specialist was still the breadwinner of the family.
Even though Tom felt ready to re-enter the workforce after changing careers last year, rising childcare costs meant he was prioritising staying home with their one-year-old daughter, Ellie, while his wife went to work, rather than taking a job with a base salary.
In nearly half of all heterosexual marriages in the US, wives now earn at least as much or more than their husbands, according to Bloomberg.
Lauren Schneider with her husband Tom and daughter Ellie
Nearly a third of wives earn the same amount as their spouses, while women who are the primary or sole breadwinners make up 16 percent of the total, according to a Pew Research Center report released on April 13.
Earn more money than husband
“We talked about whether he wanted to go back to work. Selfishly, I wanted him to stay home, but I let him decide. My husband really enjoys being a stay-at-home dad,” Lauren shared.
The decline in male-headed households is happening not only because more women are entering the workforce, but also because they are graduating from college at higher rates than men, which often leads to higher-paying jobs.
Higher education is a factor that affects women's career paths, helping them to easily get jobs with significant salaries.
“When girls have higher levels of education than men, the number of successful women increases across the board, leading to significant changes in the labor market,” said Marianne Bertrand, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In heterosexual marriages where both spouses earn roughly the same amount of money, the average salary falls around60,000 USD. College graduates and young women are more likely to be in egalitarian partnerships.
Women of color are also more likely to earn more than their husbands, as are women with college degrees, women aged 55 to 64 and those without children.
Burden of housework
However, the gender gap continues to affect earnings even in households where women are the breadwinners.
When the wife is the top earner in the household, household income tends to be about half that of when the husband is the sole earner. Dual-income families with the wife as the breadwinner also earn a fraction less than those headed by a male.
The reason is that married women earn about15,000 USD/year compared to married men, based on estimates from the US Department of Labor.
While taking on the main responsibility of earning money, many wives still have to take care of young children and do housework.
The pandemic, which has been three years in the making, has also made matters worse for many women, as some have been forced to quit their jobs to care for their children amid school closures, a lack of childcare and other family issues.
At the height of the health care crisis, nearly half of American women were not in the workforce—a trend that has yet to fully reverse.
In addition, working wives still have to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of unnamed housework.
In egalitarian marriages, wives spend nearly 12 hours a week on caregiving and housework, compared with about 7 hours for their male counterparts. They also tend to have less free time than men.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Misty Heggeness, an economist at the University of Kansas. “Women are continuing to participate in the formal labor market and contribute in that way, while at the same time they are still disproportionately shouldering all the burden and responsibility that falls on them.”
By Family
