Just when you thought proposal season was over, it’s Valentine’s Day. This year there will be about 220,000 proposals on Feb. 14. That means about 10% of all annual engagements in the U.S. will take place during this 24-hour period.
In spite of these numbers, the marriage rate in America is falling and has been for some time. Marriage rates are at their lowest in history. According to Pew Research, fewer adults over the age of 25 are married than ever before. Those who do intend to marry are delaying the act; the average age of marriage in the U.S. is now 27 for women and 29 for men, up from 20 and 23 respectively in 1960.
In popular media coverage, the retreat in marriage tends to focus on Millennials, minorities and lower-income workers as the backbone of this phenomenon. Pew reported that 25% of Millennials never intend to get married, African-American women are three times more likely to never marry than white women, while low-income individuals are less likely to be married even though they tend to put high value on the institution.
“Part of the story here, of course, is economic. It’s precisely among lower-income and working-class people and Millennials where job prospects are worse, where unemployment is higher and where underemployment is higher,” says Brad Wilcox, director of The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. When people – particularly men – don’t have a job or a decent salary, they are statistically less likely to get and stay married.
The marriage advantage
The American economy, some would argue, is set up to best serve married couples. A married couple can give and receive tax-free gifts; Medicare, Social Security, disability and veteran’s benefits all extend to a spouse. And couple’s discounts are available for auto, healthcare and homeowner’s insurance.
There is also a noted “marriage premium” on married men’s salaries—depending on demographics married men tend to make 10% to 50% more money each year than their single counterparts.
“We found that married men tend to make $16,000 more each year than their similar single peers,” says Wicox, who is also a visiting scholar at American Enterprise Institute. Women, he says, no longer bear a marriage penalty. “So you put two married folks together and you’re seeing more income for them both as individuals and as a family.”
This makes a big impact on the macro level. About a third of the growth in income inequality since the 1970s can be attributed to the retreat from marriage, says Wilcox. One-third of the decline in men’s labor force participation over the same period can also be attributed to the decline. “We’d see median household incomes about 40% higher if we had marriage rates at the 1980 levels,” he says. Wilcox sustains that the largest reason for income inequality is single parenthood, between 1980 and 2012 the median family income for married couples rose 30% while unmarried incomes rose by 14%.