MARRIAGE MATTERS

MARRIAGE MATTERS

Marriage, poverty rates are linked

Few social service agencies or even churches want to address the link between a rise in income inequality to falling marriage rates, for fear of alienating people or encouraging abortion, but it’s hard to ignore a growing body of research into the relationship. For the past three decades, the gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans has grown quick

WHY SAYING ‘ I DO’ CAN PAY OFF

Family median income growth would be 44% higher if parents married at the same rate as 1980. Young men from intact families earn a premium of $6,500 a year, and young women $4,700, over peers from single-parent families. Married men earn $15,900 a year more than single peers and married women earn about the same as single peers.  For men with a high school degree or less, the marriage premium is at least $17,000.*
*Source: For Richer, For Poorer, study by W. Bradford Wilcox abd Robert Lerman

Marriage, poverty rates connected

This,  at the same time marriage rates for low-income, less-educated Americans have plunged.

A study released earlier this year quantifies some of the financial benefits of marriage. For Richer, For Poorer, conducted by W. Bradford Wilcox of the American Enterprise Institute and Robert Lerman of the Urban Institute, found that:

-        The growth in median income of families with children would be an estimated 44 percent higher if American parents had the same marriage levels today that they did in 1980.

-        Young men who grow up in an intact family earn an annual premium of $6,500 over peers from singleparent families; for young women the premium is $4,700 a year.

-        Married men make an additional $15,900 per year more than peers who are single. Married women earn about the same as their single peers. Married people who were raised in intact families enjoy even greater increases in their household income.

-        The advantages extend across races and educational levels. For instance, black men enjoy a marriage premium of at least $12,500 in income compared to their single peers. For men with a high school degree or less, the marriage premium is at least $17,000.

The divide threatens to become self-perpetuating, as children of wealthier, intact families go on to marry other children from stable families, while prospects for children of the poor grow ever dimmer.

While unmarried births have stabilized a bit in the last few years, nearly 41 percent of births in 2012 – the last year for which statistics are available – were to unmarried women, up from 5 percent in 1960 and 28 percent in 1990.

No one yet knows what the relationship between growing income inequality and falling marriage rates is, and it’s probably a chicken-and-egg argument: Does poverty make people reluctant to marry? Or do falling marriage rates – and especially a rise in unmarried parenting – make people poorer?

The solutions are equally complex. No one wants to coerce people into marriage, and the shotgun weddings of generations ago often turned out badly for all involved. Some abortion opponents are also reluctant to make too big a deal about births outside of wedlock because they want to encourage women to give birth regardless of their circumstances.

But there are policy changes to consider that would help give people the financial stability to consider marriage and reward people who raise children within marriage. According to Lerman, Wilcox and others who study the financial impact of marriage, these include:

-        Eliminating or reducing marriage penalties in the tax code. Marriage penalties are especially high for lower-income Americans; for example, generally two single people making $18,000 a year each would pay fewer taxes than a married couple making the same amount.

-        Increasing the child credit to $3,000 and extending it to income and payroll taxes would help more working- class families cover the costs of raising children. Additionally, expanding the maximum earned income tax credit for single, childless adults to $1,000 could increase their marriageability by contributing to their financial stability.

-        Improving vocational education and apprenticeship programs to help make less-educated young people more employable.

-        Counseling first-time single mothers on the benefits of waiting until marriage to have a second child. School and work options that are possible with one child become much more complicated with two or more.

-        Continuing benefits such as food stamps for three years after marriage instead of cutting them off right away would give couples a chance to improve their financial situation before losing benefits. Additionally, federal and state agencies could reserve a portion of benefits for married couples, such as setting aside 15 percent of housing vouchers for them, to encourage and reward marriage.

-        Launching a public-awareness campaign around what’s known as the “success sequence” that encourages young adults to finish school, get a job, get married and have children, in that order. Such a campaign could be modeled on successful efforts to reduce drunk driving, smoking and teen pregnancy.

Marriage was never a priority for Janelle Odom, not even when she became pregnant at age 20. But as her son got older, she wanted a stability for him that she couldn’t seem to provide on her own.

“I think the first couple years of life kids cling to their mothers, so it doesn’t matter what dad is doing,” says Odom, a hair stylist who lives in Elmwood Place. “But when they start to formulate who they are, around 7, 8, 9, he started to ask, ‘Where’s my dad? Why doesn’t my dad live here? Why didn’t my dad go to daddy donut morning at school?’ I started feeling like maybe if I was married he would feel more stable.

“There was no grand quest to go out and get married,” she continues, “but I definitely made a decision around that time that I’m not doing this again unless I’m married, because I don’t want to take another child through that feeling. I started feeling like I need to change how I date for marriage to be the goal. I didn’t run out and marry the first person, but I changed my dating requirements. I wasn’t just hanging out any more.”

Janelle and Shawn Odom had stayed in close contact with each other, united by their concern for their son. Over many complicated years, their shared responsibility grew into a love and respect for each other, leading to their July wedding.

It’s a heartwarming story, but it’s also a smart financial move for the Odoms. As they receive financial counseling and Shawn Odom pursues his GED, their marriage, bolstered by their two incomes, will make their economic future more stable.

For the Odoms, marrying has meant adjustments – Janelle Odom had never lived with a man before, and finding clothes on the floor came as a surprise – as well as benefits that have extended across their lives. Premarital counseling prompted them to clean up their finances, and both have resolved to make changes – like Shawn Odom pursuing his GED – to stabilize their future together.

“When we did start dating I was like, if we’re going to date, we’re going to get married, we’re going to go to counseling, you’re going to clean up your credit, I’m going to clean up my credit,” Odom says. “Our finances definitely have improved. They’re not perfect, but at least with somebody with you, if you have a plan in mind you realize you’re not going down this road by yourself.”