Women Wed to High Earners Had the Biggest Increases in Hours Worked

From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, American married women’s weekly working hours rose significantly, but the increases were uneven: The increase in hours was 3 times greater for those married to top earners than for those wed to low earners, say Christian Bredemeier of the University of Dortmund and Falko Juessen of the University of Wuppertal, both in Germany. Women married to high earners worked more hours because they had greater earning potential; women with high earning potential became more likely to marry men with high earning potential because birth control allowed for later marriages, after “wage uncertainty” was resolved, the authors suggest.