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MUNICH, March 9 — Marriage reduces women’s income by an average of one-fifth, according to researchers at Munich’s ifo Institute, as reported by German news agency dpa. The findings were released on Friday to coincide with Equal Pay Day.
“Our research shows that in a marriage, the income disparities between men and women increase, and this is independent of the birth of children,” said ifo researcher Elena Herold. The effects become apparent within a few years after marriage, she added.
Looking at how the incomes of men and women change after marriage compared to the year before the wedding, there are no major anomalies for men, according to Herold. For women, however, she indicated that there is a strong decline over several years.
“This is not only due to marriage, as often the first children arrive in the years following the wedding. But even if you factor out this effect, there is a deterioration of income by 20 per cent for women. Including the effects of having children, the deterioration is even greater — by half,” she said.
The difference, she noted, is made by marriage, not cohabitation: “For couples who lived together before marriage, we see no different effects than those who only move in together with the wedding,” said Herold. Presumably, the greater legal security provided by marriage encourages women to reduce their working hours, she added.
The decline in income is not due to lower wages for women. There are no significant changes in earnings per hour as a result of marriage. Rather, about one in 10 women stops working altogether, and the rest work about one-fifth less, with the effect developing over several years.
Parallel to this, the work done by women in the household increases by about one-fifth — not including child-rearing. This is not observed in men, the study found. — Bernama-dpa