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When wives earn more than husbands, does divorce follow?

On Behalf of | Oct 6, 2021 | Divorce

Women’s wages are slowly catching up to men’s — and, sometimes, exceeding them. If you take a look at the latest data published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just last month, it shows that women in some sectors earn just as much as if not more than men. One statistic published by the BLS in 2019 suggested that at least 38% of wives earned more than their husbands. 

A study published in 2019 by MEL magazine suggests that men don’t look too fondly upon their female spouses, who are the higher income earners in their household. The article’s authors discovered that the higher the wife’s income, the more likely her husband would divorce her.

How often do unequal salaries result in divorce?

The analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data showed an interesting fact: Wives often underrepresent how much they make by as much as 1.5% when their husbands are the lower-income earner of the two. They also discovered that husbands often claim to make 2.9% more than they actually do when they’re the higher income earner in the couple.

It seems that whether the spouses have full-time jobs also impacts their divorce rate. Harvard University researchers determined that wives who work full-time where the husband does not are 33% more likely to end up in the dissolution of their marriage.

What impact do unequal salaries have on a divorce?

Divorce is seldom something spouses go into amicably. There’s often a power struggle over property, custody and financial support. You’ll want to be amply prepared as you proceed to achieve the best outcome possible in your divorce.