Does Specialization Explain Marriage Penalties and Premiums?

Alexandra A. Killewald · Margaret Gough

247 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Sociological Review

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Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics Family Dynamics and Relationships Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Abstract

Married men's wage premium is often attributed to within-household specialization: men can devote more effort to wage-earning when their wives assume responsibility for household labor. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of the specialization hypothesis, arguing that, if specialization causes the male marriage premium, married women should experience wage losses. Furthermore, specialization by married parents should augment the motherhood penalty and the fatherhood premium for married as compared to unmarried parents. Using fixed-effects models and data from the NLSY79, we estimate within-gender differences in wages according to marital status and between-gender differences in the associations between marital status and wages. We then test whether specialization on time use, job traits, and tenure accounts for the observed associations. Results for women do not support the specialization hypothesis. Childless men and women both receive a marriage premium. Marriage augments the fatherhood premium but not the motherhood penalty. Changes in own and spousal employment hours, job traits, and tenure appear to benefit both married men and women, although men benefit more. Marriage changes men's labor market behavior in ways that augment wages, but these changes do not appear to occur at the expense of women's wages.

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References

1991A Treatise on the Family 2007Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?2001The Wage Penalty for Motherhood 2001The case for marriage: why married people are happier, healthier, and better off financially 2006Promises I can keep: why poor women put motherhood before marriage 2006Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage 2005Gender, Time and Inequality: Trends in Women's and Men's Paid Work, Unpaid Work and Free Time 1997The Effect of Children on Women's Wages

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