By: Matt Rosenberg
If we really want to unwind and correct what puts some populations at such great risk for bad economic and social outcomes, we should figure out how to accentuate the advantages of marriage.
How essential marriage is, or isn’t, has long been a fraught culture-wars debate. So instead, approach it in economic terms. Few could disagree that at-risk children in low-income households would benefit from living with two married, law-abiding parents bringing home dramatically higher earnings. Census data show that is what marriage does, particularly for black women with children.
2020 Census data show that median income was a remarkable 173 percent higher for black married couples with children versus single black female householders with children. Hispanics, Asians and whites also enjoyed substantial gains in household income by being married, though the benefits were somewhat lower.
Based on the 2020 Census data we reviewed, a black married couple with children had a median income of $94,493. In contrast, a black female household head with children but no spouse present earned an annual median income of just $34,544.
The marriage bonus is particularly important for black households with children because only 38 percent of black children under 18 in the U.S. in 2020 lived with two married parents, according to U.S. Census data. That compares to 61 percent of Hispanic children, 75 percent of white children and 87 percent of Asian kids.
The percent of children living with two married parents varies from state to state and within each state, by race, though only 27 of 50 states reported on the percent of black children living in single-parent households. Many states have very small black populations.
Data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that in those 27 reporting states, the percentage of black children in single-parent homes ranges from 79.1 in Wisconsin to 72.2 percent in Illinois (4th highest) to 49.7 in Minnesota.
Married couples also earn more than unmarried couples
Wirepoints also analyzed a different type of “marriage bonus”: the difference in median income for unmarried versus married couples. Across all major racial populations that were measured, married couples with children had notably higher incomes than unmarried couples with children.
Among the three groups that could be assessed on this basis, whites got a 66 percent marriage bonus, blacks 39 percent, and Hispanics 25 percent. There were not enough Asian unmarried couples with children to qualify for inclusion.
Median income for a married black couple was $94,493 versus $67,999 for an unmarried married black couple. For a Hispanic couple the difference was $71,110 versus $56,586. For whites, unmarried couples had median household income of $67,523 versus $111,915 for married couples.
To boost household income, get marriageable; then get married
A caveat is in order. Our term “marriage bonus” might seem to imply that simply by getting married parents of children will earn more – of course it’s not that simple. In fact, a decision to get married by two biological parents or parents-to-be who are unmarried depends on several factors.
Considerations include perceptions of the other partner’s character, trustworthiness, fidelity, parenting capability, earning potential, and work ethic. These sorts of things add up to something called “marriageability.” Being able to meet the requirements of sealing the deal means the household will already be better positioned for greater earnings. Therefore the maxim could be, “to make yourself wealthier, first make yourself more marriageable.” And then get married.
Marriage coincides with far less poverty
We also sought to analyze the relative advantage of marriage from the other end of the income scale: avoiding poverty. We examined a different set of 2020 Census data and found that among adults living with related children under 18, married couples did far better than any other kind at avoiding poverty. The effect was especially pronounced among black adults living with related children under 18.
Only 8.2 percent of married black adults with one or more children were in poverty versus 37 percent of black female adults with no spouse but at least one child. There were similar, but slightly lesser margins of poverty avoidance among whites, Latinos, and Asians between female household heads and married couples, with one or more children. The Census Bureau uses poverty thresholds which differ by family size and age of members.
It’s clear that marriage helps children
One must acknowledge that there are instances where single parents have done a remarkable job raising children to become successful adults. It is also true that some toxic marriages harm children and that in such cases they can be better off by living with just one parent.
But that does not change the broader thrust of the data. Children deserve the added attention, health, educational success – and especially the added financial support – which result from strong marriages and living in two-parent households.
Children born to unmarried mothers tend to end up with less schooling, lower earnings and job status. Their marriages are rockier, and they get divorced and fall prey to depression more often. The negative effects go on. Now, thanks to the recent U.S. Census data we’ve analyzed and shared here, it’s clear that the financial disadvantages of mother-alone households versus the earnings rewards of married households with children are profound.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Gov. Pritzker is still proclaiming Illinois a Covid “disaster area.” How does he do it with a straight face?
- Four things you need to know about mass shootings and the new gun control landscape
- New State of Illinois Financial Statements Show $4.5 Billion Loss For FY 2021, Repudiating ‘Balanced Budget’ Claims
- In a city this violent, Mayor Lightfoot’s outburst against Justice Thomas constitutes a grave dereliction of duty
- Electricity cost rising 50% in much of Illinois and risk of brownouts looms
- Beyond Ridiculous: Pritzker Extends Emergency COVID Powers Another 30 Days. Why?
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/14/2024.
If you’re frustrated with Illinois’ educational results, you may want to follow the money from teachers unions. In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
The foundation of societal decay lies in this one factor – children without fathers. We have out of control males who have never been challenged by a parent – who run amok among society. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden themselves have addressed this problem in the past and seem to have pushed it aside. Doesn’t fit the marxist narrative. Needless to say , father’s teach their sons and daughters how to love a woman (their mother) and instill discipline to help the child grow into adulthood. It is extremely difficult for one woman to handle male children successfully alone. I… Read more »
Matt:
You certainly are your father’s son.
(Side note to readers: Matt’s late father, Milt Rosenberg was a highly respected radio host on Chicago’s WGN and faculty at the U. of Chicago.)
Your article is “profound.” That is its final word.
Here it the last sentence:
“It’s clear that the financial disadvantages of mother-alone households versus the earnings rewards of married households with children are profound.”
Our problem is a counter-culture that fails to discourage out-of-wedlock births. It is almost encouraged by the nitwits in the “presstocricy” who daily scream their lies.
I was a single custodial father for much of my adult life, so I might be viewed as an unlikely respondent to this timely and telling article. Am I implying that I am or was a typical parent? Not at all. I have an advanced college degree and served as a military officer before it became “cool” to be a veteran (9/11/01 and thereafter. I was a custodial parent to my son and non-custodial to my daughter. So there are all manner of countervailing forces at work in my life. As a custodial parent, I was always aware of the… Read more »
“Marriage in various forms has served humanity well for centuries.”
LOL, the leftist believes this is true only because humanity has been dominated by the racist white cisgendered heteronormative patriarchy. Remove the racist white man telling women of color to ‘get married’ and the world would be a flourishing utopia of progressive lifestyles with no violence, crime or STDs….the left has solved the ‘divorce’ problem now that few get married (look up wedding venue bankruptcies), but now they have to solve the rest of society’s problems..
Tom, thanks greatly for your nuanced and telling tale. You’ve really enriched this conversation.
The statistics are eye-popping. But two parent homes with kids has always been more stable and traditionally their children excel in school, especially in math, reading and music. I wonder when the black community will realize this; but Antifa wants to blue up the traditional family.
Another excellent column Matt! You would think that if black lives really mattered, democrats would see the failure in their programs and policies that have destroyed the nuclear family and would do a 180 to encourage and promote “marriageable” citizens. But those are exactly to types of people who need less government and that would cut deeply into the democrat party’s power. So they must continue promoting, as Shelby Steele points out, “America’s Original Sin: Using race for power.”
As Matt Rosenberg continues with credible, data driven analysis, the left, either by indifference or omission continues with its, “Don’t confuse me with the facts” tradition. Keep your foot on the accelerator Matt, tenacity is thy name! Tangentially, while recently commenting on the gun control issue, New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded to a question on the data behind recent shootings relative to her proposed remedy. Governor Hochul said, “I don’t need to have numbers. I don’t have to have a data point to point to that says (inaudible), all I know is that I have a responsibility to the people… Read more »
How interesting, then, that the new SJW front is to discourage women from getting pregnant in the first place. The corporations offering to cover travel expenses for abortion seekers are not doing it because they are in favor of choice; they’re making an economic calculation and the few thousand for travel is far cheaper than the cost of pre-natal care, delivery, maternity leave, and one more person on the company insurance plan. And that’s just the half of it. The rest is that the company does not want to compete for the attention of a woman who might find some… Read more »
Another good article; this cuts across race/class barriers: https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/07/the-epidemic-of-fatherless-boys-is-unraveling-our-society/ The Epidemic Of Fatherless Boys Is Unraveling Our Society New report finds that boys who have an absent father are less likely to graduate college, more likely to idle in their 20s, and more likely to go to jail. “So often we hear from women – where are the good men who have a purpose in life, who want to be successful at work and in the home? Instead, they see a lack of emotionally mature and stable men who are stuck in perpetual adolescence because they lack the role model… Read more »
Insightful, informed (and informative). pragmatic look at an issue so serious that its failure threatens to undermine the very well-being of a nation. Often through governmental programs, the lessening of personal responsibility for one’s own welfare and that of one’s family is the major factor in the socio-economic degradation plaguing our society today and has been for decades. Civilized societies must safeguard people who become economically vulnerable for whatever reason (excluding criminality). But when that safety net becomes a hammock, the recipients meant to be helped by this aid are not encouraged to achieve self-sufficiency. This dulling of the human… Read more »
The rules for success have never changed
— finish your education
— get a job
— get married
— buy a home
— have children
— save money all through your working life for retirement
Follow these rules and you are well on your way to success
Yes, but only if you define ‘success’ by the following rules of the racist white european cisgenedered hetero-normative patriarchy. Work, marriage, owning property, keeping rather than abortion children, saving for the future – these ideas started with the racist white Greeks who didn’t give their Helots or their women or their slaves the choice participate in society, and here we are, 2,500 years later, and racist straight white dudes are still controlling the discourse and setting the rules for ‘success’.
Is this sass? Is this comedy? Has to be cuz it’s just too stupid to be real.
This census proves beyond doubt that a stable 2 parent household is beneficial to children. Common Sense tells us a family atmosphere provides security for children and parents. The family atmosphere teaches children that it is important to be responsible adults. We have moved so far away from common sense that we have wasted the future of our children. Matt this information should be spread far and wide. Thank you.
“We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work ‘double shifts’ so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work….We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
-BLM, September 2020
NO MENTION OF FATHERS ANYWHERE IN BLM’s About Us
“Marriageability” used to be called holy matrimony in my world. Economic struggles are always diminished when you have a committed partner – both to each other and to the goal of financial gain. The census figures don’t lie. We should be telling the younger fevers going to go rogue ➡️ Get married, have children and figure out how having two incomes best works for your marriage.
There is not much wisdom today. People have sadly stopped making marriage a value. In general, and of course there are always exceptions, kids have one parent, that child will clearly suffer and society loses too. Interesting article!
Awesome piece, Matt. I had never considered that the qualities that underpin marriageability are those that lead to social success and societal functioning. All I had was a general feeling that marriage and a two-parent family was a good thing for society. Thanks for the stats!
ah-mazzzzing. “New” documentation of exactly what our fore fathers knew from the inception of the institution. Marriage is a protection for good for men, women, and children in the long haul. What a waste of time, energy and money simply ‘proving’ what we already KNOW if one would just do the minimal of research. It is a great sadness to me that so many people need to be told this over and over and over and over again. A deeply held commitment trumps a lot of ills in society, and running away, running out on a commitment is not just… Read more »
From the great Victor Davis Hanson: https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/06/the-disappearing-american/ The Disappearing American? There are historical downsides—economic, cultural, social, and military—to nations that shun child-raising. “…The real gender crisis in America are these listless and stalled 20-something men. Too many are still living at home, not fully employed, often in debt, hooked on social media, video games, or satisfying their appetites—and with scant interest in marrying, much less raising children… Our popular culture reflects this multifarious growing reluctance to raise children. And currently only 65 percent of children grow up in families with both parents… The 2012 Obamacare ad, “The Life of Julia,” fixated… Read more »
Obama’s vision was preceded by the great public housing boon of the 60’s where every unwed mother was promised suitable housing and welfare payments just as long as no father was around. Perhaps well meaning, but this failed social experiment is still paying negative social dividends that in many circumstances have outlived the actual buildings. Tremendous article that indirectly makes the case that kids do better when a father is around. Actual marriage of course makes this much more likely.
Yes, that “…where every unwed mother was promised suitable housing and welfare payments just as long as no father was around” policy was a death blow to family stability. Another terrible disincentive – this discourages marriage…!!!
Thank you!!
Matt Rosenberg for this valuable information 🙏
Marriage is essential and most people are ignoring that change starts at home
And we must provide our children with the right tools to survive and one of them
Is strong family values
Our kids need a mom and a dad
Everything starts at HOME
If we want to see change
We must start at home.
With all the successful Black businessmen in our country, across the business and academic spectrum…. and beyond Rock, Roll and Entertainment ? Their silence during these times is deafening. Where are the role models outside of the entertainment industry, sports teams and music ? Why such silence from the halls of congress where successful Black politicians have a soapbox? How about the Black titans of industry, the Ken Chenault’s, the Arnold Donalds ? How about the Johnson Family in Chicago. Why not shout your success from the hills and give these kids a look at educated, successful black leaders? Speak… Read more »
How about Sen. Tim Scott, Justice Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell (I know I mentioned them previously). Outstanding men and role models, but the mainstream media tend to ignore them or worse, regard them as ‘Uncle Toms’, worthy of scorn by the black community, not emulation.
Dead on, Hale. The needle on this won’t be moved by us white wonky guys. The message has to come from them.
The article did not mention child support and because it is not taxable I wonder if there is a possibility that your analysis overstates the income gap for single parents who may be receiving it. Thanks for all your work. I read your email daily.
I can tell you from experience that the majority of single mothers caught up in the child support system are poor and their baby daddies are equally as poor and degenerate. The average or typical baby momma receives several hundred dollars per month at most and that’s not always consistently. There’s always the exception to the rule – rap artists, sports stars, Elon Musk, Hershel Walker, Arnold Swartzennger – but the typical man with the higher paying job is more likely to get married instead of fathering multiple children. He may pay child support after divorce but that’s an entirely… Read more »
This really makes too much empirical sense to rebut. Stable homes provide more stable cradles and environments to flourish. The black family was much stronger before the well-intentioned but dissolving effects of the Great Society, which in turn enabled the further dissolving effects of the Sexual Revolution. Caucasian and mixed race families also failed to weather the dissolving effects of sexual “liberation.” It did not liberate children. Coincidentally, I read today this piece about a sociologist in the 30s who studied societies in history, and compared their degrees of sexual restraint or expansiveness with various measures of cultural flourishing. Though… Read more »
Great article! Now if you could find a way to get this out to the people that need to hear it. So many of the young people I know have no desire to get married and yet, they are busy procreating. They choose to live this way as if marriage is an anathema.
See the article by Dr. Walter Williams called “Black Progress” at http://capitalismmagazine.com/2006/11/black-progress-through-politics/ An excerpt: “In 1940, poverty among black families was 87 percent and fell to 47 percent by 1960. Would someone tell me what anti-poverty program or civil-rights legislation accounted for this economic advance that exceeded any other 20-year interval? A significant chunk of that progress occurred through migration from rural areas in the South to big Northern cities. Between 1960 and 1980, black poverty fell roughly 17 percent and fell one percent during the ’70s. Might this have been a continuation of a trend starting much… Read more »
I’ve said for years that the Democratic Party has kept Africa-Americans in slavery more surely than the old Massa in the antebellum South ever did! Thanks for quoting Dr. Walter Williams and Dr. Thomas Sowell. They, along with Justice Clarence Thomas are three of the finest minds the U.S. has ever produced ! And they’re brave men, too!!
It’s fabulous that a journalist like yourself has the courage to post a SET OF FACTS, that are indisputable. Too few journalists have the chutzpah to state the simple facts, while nary a reader would or could argue for fatherless families. I’d challenge anyone to make that argument, with the exception of child abuse perpetrated by that father ! The case has been abundantly clear, fathers are necessary ! That core value seems to have eluded the Black community, beyond any other racial group in our precious country.
Interesting and well thought out article. I agree children fair better in a two parent home. I must also ask where are other family members are if a mother is a single patent? I had a friend who found herself divorced with two young boys. Her family helped. Grandpa, her brothers, and brother-in-law all pitched in. I feel for the lost children who don’t have strong parental influence. I’m just not sure how one goes about selling the idea of marriage to men and women. Some have multiple partners. Children are born with different fathers. I must also ask how… Read more »
Great comment! I was impressed by the immediate community response to the parade shooting in Highland Park where neighborhood people helped and protected one another and the police organizations quickly co-ordinated to focus on the shooter. Over 70 people were shot over the 07/04 weekend and no response of any kind is shown on local TV. Less than 15% of these shootings and killings are solved. There are people who care but are too afraid to help, so the call goes out for more public money.
It’s good to see empirical data presented persuasively that homes with married parents do better than single parent households. While this is common sense to me, there are others for whom these findings will not be at all welcome. Although the article did not get into the culture wars debate, for many years we have been fed the idea coming from radical feminists that they don’t need men, that they can do anything that a man can do. Well, if they have children that’s certainly not the case. In my opinion, boys especially need to have a father in the… Read more »
LOL, Wirepoints has this all backwards. The institution of marriage doesn’t provide a bonus, but rather, our western-based cisgendered hetero-normative patriarchy oppresses unmarried and single caregivers/breeders. The institution of marriage fosters inequity and forces single parents/caregivers/chestfeeders into poverty. The systemic biases inherent in the judeo-christian nuclear family structure ITSELF is the source of the poverty and oppression of unmarried and single caregivers/breeders. Remember, a primary tenet of Black Lives Matter is to: “[disrupt] the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure”. It’s simply not fair that married couples with children earn more than unmarried or single parents. It’s inequitable that math – two… Read more »
My sarcasm above aside, the real problem here, like everything else, complicated, but reducing it down as simply as possible provides many explanations. If we look back in time, before the Great Society, we can see that all people of all races were more likely to be married. People married at younger ages and they had more children. A typical 28 year old male was likely to graduate from a high school that taught him to read, he’d have a local job at some factory or some trade, and he’d earn an income that was working class, but sufficient to… Read more »
You are right, that is absolutely how the left interprets the facts. I read articles like this and think nobody could possibly disagree. You have the knack for getting inside their insanity without going crazy yourself!
Leftists view themselves as victims of the white european cisgendered heteronormative patriarchy. In English, this means that their entire worldview requires the premise that straight white men, and every institution or system they created, design, or even actively participate in, was designed to oppress and subjugate humanity and perpetuate inequity. You can apply this to maxim to policy issue the leftist takes, even if it veers into the absurd. The leftist believes the only way to rectify (what they see as) a straight white dude’s world is to destroy it. They’re so focused on destruction of what exists that what… Read more »
Sparrow, not swallows.
Debtsor, rule 1 about sarcasm and parody that we learned he hard way. Always add a winky face or something because some people won’t get it.
Or hold up the Sarcasm Sign:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z9is87jfqQ
As a former metaphor-mixing boss would say, “this ain’t rocket surgery.” Seriously, documented evidence that getting and staying married is the best thing anyone can do to succeed in life. Bravo!
A stable two-parent household is the most common way to successfully rear children.
Outstanding work, Matt ! Who’d a thunk it ? Morality pays. Your money sentences “To make yourself wealthier, first make yourself more marriageable. Then get married. “. Thanks so much for your diligence and honesty in discussing these issues.
Please keep up your great work on stories that expose the underlying causes of our societal dysfunction. The fantasy that racism is to blame for any problems has been allowed to drown out discussions of real actions and consequences. Also, I’m glad you made clear that a “marriage certificate” is not the answer. It’s the behaviors and attitudes that make one willing and able to undertake the responsibilities of marriage and child rearing that produce the benefits, not the piece of paper. We have politicians justifying the release of criminals by saying that incarceration removes fathers from the home. A… Read more »