While searching the Census Bureau website for data to reproduce the
above chart I found a nice spreadsheet that provides a breakdown in household
types for various income categories for both men and women. I thought that might provide some insight to the gender income inequality issue. An interesting pattern I observed in the data is that, for men, income is
highly correlated with one of the household types, "Married, Spouse Present." The other household types included in the data are "Married Spouse Absent," "Widowed," "Divorced," "Separated," and "Never Married." Men in the highest income category, more than
$100k per year, are twice as likely to be Married with spouse present, 80%,
than men with incomes of $15k per year or less.
And the percent Married, spouse present, increases steadily with rising
income. Click on the chart to read the fine print more easily.
It is interesting that the same relationship
between marital status and income is not present for women. At the low end of the income scale and at the
high end, 60% to 70% of the women are Married with Spouse Present. That percentage dips a bit to the mid fifties at the middle
income range, but there is no overall trend in the data.
I suppose there are several possible explanations for these
relationships:
- Men with good incomes have a hard time staying single.
- Men with good incomes have an easier time staying married…or a harder time getting divorced.
- Married men, spouse present, spend more time on their professions and therefore earn more because of either
- Pressure to provide for their spouses and children, or
- Need to get out of the house more, or
- A more disciplined life style, or
- A supportive spouse who advances their careers.
- And, perhaps women tend to be more independent and self sufficient and less subject to any of these influences.
I have not been able, yet, to solve the gender income inequality
problem, but I think part of the answer to that
may be found in Luke 12:15 – For a man's (or woman’s) life consisteth not in
the abundance of the things which he (or she) possesseth. ( I used the King
James Version because this is kind of an old fashioned concept.) It just may be
that women, on average, are slightly better than men at recognizing this truth and are therefore a bit less likely to dedicate themselves to pursuit of the almighty dollar and make the sacrifices required for income maximization. I'm not saying anything here about any individual men or women but just commenting on possible differences in the means. Just the same as in the case of Red States and Blue States, there is about as much variation within genders as between genders, so don't ever make the mistake of prejudging ones greed or ambition based on gender.
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