Study Links Wives’ Pay to Husbands’ Income Level

Wives of men in the highest and lowest income brackets tend to earn more than those married to husbands in between, a new Census Bureau study shows.

The report on household and family income for 1984 found that overall, 42% of families--by far the largest proportion of all families--had two wage earners.

The once-traditional single breadwinner arrangement accounted for only 29% of families. This was followed by 15% with no one working, 10% with three wage earners and 4% with four or more people bringing home money.

On average, the highest incomes were earned by wives of husbands who also were in the highest income brackets.

But earnings of women whose husbands had little or no income were also higher than the amounts brought home by wives of men with incomes in between the highest and lowest wage-earner groups, according to figures in the bureau study, “Money Income of Households, Families and Persons in the United States: 1984.”

Higher educational levels could account for the higher incomes of women married to higher income men, census officials suggested.

The wives of low-income husbands may be responding to economic necessity in bringing home more money than wives of middle income men, bureau statisticians said.

The report found that across the nation, median family income increased faster than inflation for the second year in a row in 1984. It climbed 7.1% to $26,430, while the consumer price index went up 4.3% from 1983 to 1984.

“Increased employment and higher real earnings levels were important factors that helped boost real median family income,” it said.

“The proportion of families with a householder working year-round, full time, rose to 57% from 55%, and the proportion of families with two or more earners also increased slightly, to 56% from 55%,” the bureau reported.

“Two-earner families now account for about 42% of all families.”

The study found that working wives had median incomes of $9,437 in 1984. Median income indicates that half earned less than that amount and half earned more.

The highest income group of women, with a median of $10,727, was wives of men earning between $35,000 and $50,000.

Wives with the lowest median income--$5,785--had husbands in the $5,000 to $6,000 income bracket. But women with husbands who had no earnings at all had median incomes of $8,859, and wives of husbands in the levels under $5,000 recorded median incomes in the $6,000 to $7,000 range.