When He Earns Less

How gender norms affect wage reporting

You probably never thought you’d hear these words: The United States Census Bureau just released an interesting study. Yep, I said it. They’ve got data that won’t put you to sleep.

The Census Bureau uses family income as a way of measuring the health of the economy. To check their sourcing methods and accuracy, they compared reported household incomes with tax and employer information.

Guess what? In “non-traditional” heterosexual couples, where the wife earns more than the husband, the data was off. The wife underreported her earnings while overreporting her husband’s earnings. The same happened when the husband filed the report. Clearly, gender norms are still influencing how we perceive ourselves and our partners.

Even when something as concrete and verifiable as annual income is in question, we’re swayed by societal expectations. What does this mean for your relationship? Maybe nothing. But it could be a great motivator for some transparent honesty about your finances as a couple.

The Census Bureau report found that when wives earn more than their husbands:

Whether the misreporting is done consciously or unconsciously, there’s a clear link between the accuracy of the data and the relative earnings…

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