Putting a Ring on It: Men’s Work in the Underground Economy and the Decision to Marry

ABSTRACT

Men’s employment is an important predictor of union formation and couples’ transitions to marriage, but previous research has not investigated the extent to which the type of men’s employment affects the likelihood of marriage. To fill this gap, we use multinomial logistic regression and data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,128) to explore whether men’s employment in the underground economy inhibits or promotes the transition to marriage among unmarried parents three years after the birth of their child. The results show that underground work is associated with relationship instability and serves as a barrier to marriage. Thus, in fragile families, the type of work that the father does, independent of the amount of income he earns from such employment, drives couples’ decisions to marry. Implications for research and policy that stem from the findings are discussed.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014b:para 5), “people are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, and are currently available for work.” The labor force participation rate measures “the number of people in the labor force as a percentage of the noninstitutional population sixteen years old and over. In other words, it is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively seeking work.”

² All cities included in the sample were listed in the top 100 largest U.S. cities according to the 2000 Census. New York is the largest city included in the sample with just over   eightmillion people; Richmond, VA, is the smallest with just under 200,000 residents. The 20 cities are listed here with each city’s respective poverty rate among female single heads of household with children in 2000 (in parentheses): Austin, TX (27.4%); Baltimore, MD (38.3%); Boston, MA (37.4%); Corpus Christi, TX (40.8%); Chicago, IL (40.2%); Detroit, MI (39.5%); Indianapolis, IN (30.8%); Jacksonville, FL (32.1%); Milwaukee, WI (42.9%); Nashville, TN (34.8%); Newark, NJ (47.9%); New York, NY (44.1%); Norfolk, VA (44.6%); Oakland, CA (37.4%); Philadelphia, PA (40.7%); Pittsburgh, PA (45.0%); Richmond, VA (42.6%); San Antonio, TX (39.2%); San Jose, CA (21.4%); and Toledo, OH (45.3%).

³ We created an index score (α =.94).by averaging scores across 15 items that asked each mother to report how often in the past 30 days the father engaged in various activities with the child such as meals, sports, indoor or outdoor activities, watched television or played videogames, read books, helped with homework, and talked on the phone (1 = not once in the past month, 2 =1–2 times in the past month, 3 = once a week, 4 = several times a week, 5 = every day) .

⁴ Supplemental analyses show that parents’ income independently affects couples’ union status, with marriage most likely among mothers and fathers who have higher incomes. However, once employment type is accounted for, income is no longer significantly related to couples’ union status at Wave 3.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather M. Washington

Heather M. Washington is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University. Her primary research interests focus on the collateral consequences of mass incarceration on family life, child outcomes, and incarcerees’ life course. She is particularly concerned with heterogeneity in the effect of parental incarceration on child well-being by child, parent, and family characteristics. She also has interests in understanding the ways in which individuals’ residential neighborhood environments influence involvement in crime and delinquency.

Rachael A. Woldoff

Rachael A. Woldoff, professor of sociology, received an MA and PhD in sociology from the Ohio State University, specializing in crime and community. Dr. Woldoff’s research and publications have focused on neighborhood crime and disorder, neighborhood redevelopment, and racial/ethnic differences in residential outcomes. Her work has appeared in Social Forces, Urban Affairs Review, and Urban Studies. Her book, White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhoodexplores the topics of neighborhood change, mobility decisions of whites and blacks, crime and disorder, cross-racial neighboring, and intra-racial cultural conflict; it was awarded the 2013 Best Book Award from the Urban Affairs Association. She is also a recipient of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Researcher Award. Her newest book isDigital Nomads: In Search of Freedom, Community, and Meaningful Work in the New Economy(Oxford University Press).