Publication type
Journal Article
Series Number
Authors
Publication date
June 17, 2025
Summary:
Objective:
This article aims to understand how relationship status is associated with earnings among LGB people.
Background:
Previous research has found that marriage is related to higher earnings for men and lower earnings for women, but has not often considered whether this holds across different sexual identities.
Method:
We use the longitudinal Understanding Society data from the UK to show how the earnings of LGB individuals are associated with relationship status (single, non-residential partner, residential partner, married).
Results:
Cohabiting or married men generally earn more compared to single men, regardless of sexual identity. However, gay men's earnings only increase after marrying, whereas heterosexual and bisexual men's earnings increase after entering any co-residential relationship. This suggests that gay men might receive more social support or employer approval after entering a normative relationship form. Heterosexual women start earning less after marriage, whereas the impact of changes in relationship status on earnings is relatively small and non-significant for bisexual and lesbian women. These results are largely explained by paid and unpaid work hours, suggesting that the division of labor within relationships lowers earnings among heterosexual women but not among LGB women.
Conclusion:
LGB women's earnings depend relatively little on changes in relationship status. At the same time, gay men only receive premiums related to having a partner once they marry.
Published in
Journal of Marriage and Family
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.70005
ISSN
00222445
Subjects
Notes
Online Early
Open Access
© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Marriage and Family published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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