New York
CNN
—
Few women will be surprised to learn that even when wives earn about as much as their husbands, if not more, a new Pew Research Center study shows that they still spend more time on housework and childcare, while their husbands spend more time on paid work and leisure.
“Even as financial contributions within marriage have become more equal, how couples divide their time between paid work and family life remains unbalanced,” Pew noted.
So who earns what?
Pew found that in 29% of heterosexual marriages today, women and men earn about the same (about $60,000 each). “Husbands in egalitarian marriages spend about 3.5 hours more per week on leisure time than wives. Wives in these marriages spend about 2 hours more per week on caregiving than husbands and about 2.5 hours more on housework,” the study notes.
In 55% of different-sex marriages, men are the primary or sole breadwinners, earning an average of $96,000 versus their wives' $30,000.
Moreover, in 16% of marriages, wives surpass husbands in earnings as the main (10%) or sole breadwinner (6%). In these marriages, women earn an average of $88,000 versus their husbands' $35,000.
Of all these categories, the only one in which men are reported to spend more time on caregiving than their wives is when the woman is the sole breadwinner. And the time spent per week on household chores in these marriages is divided equally between husbands and wives.
In any case, this is a big change from 50 years ago, when, for example, husbands were the main breadwinner in 85% of marriages.
Today, which women are most likely to be primary or sole breadwinners may vary by age, marital status, education and race.
For example, Pew found that black women are “significantly more likely” than other women to earn more than their husbands. For example, 26% of black women bring home more than their husbands, while only 17% of white women and 13% of Hispanic women do.
But black women with a college degree or more and few children at home are also among those most likely to earn about the same as their husbands.
These figures come against the backdrop of societal attitudes about who should earn more and how child care should be distributed between spouses.
Nearly half of Americans (48%) in the Pew survey said husbands would prefer to earn more than their wives, and 13% said men would prefer their wives to earn about the same as them.
What do women want? Twenty-two percent of Americans said most women want a husband who earns more, and 26% said most would like a man who earns about the same.
Meanwhile, when it comes to family, 77% said children would be better off if both parents gave equal attention to their work and childcare. Only 19% said children would be better off if their mother focused more on family life and their father more on work.
The Pew study is based on three data sources: income data from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey; data from the American Time Use Study and a nationally representative public opinion poll of 5,152 American adults conducted in January.
