Volume 26, Number 2 (Spring) 1991
Korenman, Sanders and David Neumark. 1991. "Does Marriage Really Make Men More Productive?" Journal of Human Resources 26(2):282-307.
This paper presents new descriptive evidence regarding marital pay premiums earned by white males. Longitudinal data indicate that wages rise after marriage, and that cross-sectional marriage premiums appear to result from a steepening of the earnings profile. Data from a company personnel file that includes information on job grades and supervisor performance ratings reveal large marital status pay differences within a narrow range of occupations (managers and professionals) and environments (a single firm). Married workers tend to be located in higher paying job grades; there are very small pay differentials within grades. Married men receive higher performance ratings than single men; as a result, they are much more likely to be promoted. Controlling for rated performance, however, eliminates the promotion differential.
Sanders Korenman is an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University and is a faculty associate of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University and a research affiliate of the national Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). David Neumark is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania and a research affiliate of the NBER. Korenman wishes to acknowledge the Hewlett Foundation and the Harvard University Center for Population Studies for financial support. The authors are grateful to James Medoff for making available an extract from the company personnel file; questions regarding data availability should be directed to Professor James Medoff, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. Other data used in this article can be obtained beginning October 1991 through October 1994 from Sanders Korenman at the following address: Office of Population research, 21 Prospect Ave., Princeton, NJ 08544. The authors thank McKinley Blackburn, David Bloom, John Bound, Richard Freeman, Larry Katz, and James Medoff for comments.
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