48
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
ARTICLES

Marriage and Women's Earnings from Work

Perspectives on TANF

&
Pages 31-47 | Published online: 23 Sep 2008
 

Abstract

Marital status and earnings from work for women are studied using the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS), Young Women's Cohort. The study focuses on how being continuously married affects the earnings of women from young adulthood through their pre-retirement years. Earnings from work are measured by average annual wages between 1968 and 1999. Bivariate findings suggest that marriage and family are associated with lessening the wage-earning potential of women over the life course but multivariate analysis shows no effect beyond that of other measures accounted for in the study. Education and number of hours worked are positively related to earnings outcomes and the number of dependents has a negative effect. Policy makers who are calling for an increase in marriage-promoting activities for TANF recipients are using marriage as a primary solution for eliminating poverty and thereby ignoring real ways to help women earn more for themselves and their families. The use of TANF funds for encouraging marriage in general is also of questionable economic advantage to non-welfare women.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.