re: Married Men Outearn Single Men (and Women as a Whole)

Or married men are naturally more motivated people.

They’re going to need a bigger chart for me. It’s funny but I’d be completely content making 75k a year if I didn’t have to support a bunch of people.

quote:

---

Did you even look at the graph in the OP? Married men out earn single men at literally all ages.

---

23 year old bartender pulls in significantly more than a 23 year old guy who just started med school, law school, any grad school.

Married guys work longer hours because they dread going home. Unfair advantage over single guys who have a life and hobbies and shite.

You can break the chart down in 3 regions. The under 22 married men are making more then the unmarried types, because they fricked up and got their high school girlfriends pregnant and are living a life of wage labor and overtime while the unmarried portion are still in school/training/military and haven’t considered settling down yet.

From 22-26 the unmarried and married curve comes closer together, as the unmarried types graduate from college, get out of the military, etc.., and join the entry level workforce (but at less experience than the married 20 year olds that have been at this for a few years).

Age 26+ women start to realize that they do in fact like money over whatever BS they told themselves before, and the deadbeats they were attracted to from his point prior aren’t the ones to bring it, so then they start to pair off with the high earners.

But, from this point forward it’s not the same men who were “high earners” at 20 years old that are pulling up the average, it’s newly wed guys who were single and working on their own life.

Could it be that married men are motivated to work hard and advance their career more to make sure their kids and wife are well taken care of?

The biggest factor of a married man out earning the other groups is because there is a wife bitching at home, talking about what the Johnsons have that you don't.

Marriage is an important part of getting ahead. ... A married guy seems more stable. People see the ring, they think 'at least somebody can stand the son of a bitch.' Ladies see the ring, they know immediately that you must have some cash, and your cock must work.

The role of sexual selection by women is likely to be a variable. A man earning a good salary for his age and region will be more desirable to the women he encounters. A lower earning single man will be presented with fewer options for marriage. A woman who earns more than other women will not be generally considered more sexually desirable and will likely not be interested in men earning less than her- lowering her chances of marrying.

If they ran the numbers differently I suspect they would see a large gap in rates of marriage in the top five percent of men versus women- with men being much more likely to be married if they are higher earners... But women seeing a lesser link because their preference for higher earning men becomes a disadvantage when they start earning more than most men.

RE: percent of income saved for retirement I wonder if we might see a difference- given that many married men are financially kicking in for both spouse and children. That might mean single men have some opportunity to save proportionally more- but it doesn't seem obvious whether or not they would be disciplined enough to do that.