White Women More Likely Than Black Women to Move Up Income Ladder Due to Differences in Partnering, Men’s Incomes
White women were not only more likely than Black women to have a spouse or partner but their spouses and partners tended to earn more, making White women more likely to attain upward mobility through partnerships, according to
new U.S. Census Bureau research.
White women who grew up in families in the bottom 20% income bracket were more likely than Black women from the same economic background to move out of the bottom bracket up to the top 20% income bracket.
No matter their childhood family income, White and Asian women were more likely than women from other race/ethnic groups to have access to more income as adults because they were more likely to have a partner and that partner was more likely to be affluent.
But this wasn’t because of differences in personal income since Black and White women from similar economic backgrounds had similar personal incomes.
It was because White women had access to more income from spouses and unmarried partners, according to the study exploring how marriage and partnerships affect a woman’s chances of being better off economically than their parents.
Measuring Family Income in Adulthood and Childhood
Researchers analyzed a sample of adults who responded to the
American Community Survey (ACS) between 2011 and 2019. The sample included women ages 28 to 32 and men ages 31 to 35 (since women tend to partner with slightly older men).
They focused on Black and White women but also examined some outcomes for women and men from other racial and ethnic groups.
The study classified people as Black, White, Asian or American Indian/Alaska Native if they identified as that race only and did not identify as Hispanic. It classified people as Hispanic if they identified as Hispanic, regardless of their race.
A person’s adulthood family income is their personal income and, if they live with a spouse or unmarried partner, the income of their partner. (Due to data limitations, this analysis was limited to different-sex couples.)
A person’s childhood family income is the average income of their parents or the adults who supported them when they were between the ages of 10 and 18. The ACS does not collect this information, so the study linked respondents’ survey records to federal income tax records of the people who claimed them as dependents when they were children.
Partnering by Race, Ethnicity and Childhood Family Income
Figure 1 shows that White women are more likely than women from other race and ethnic groups to live with a spouse or unmarried partner, regardless of their economic background.
Among women from the middle of the childhood family income distribution, nearly 70% of White women were partnered, compared to 34% of Black women and between 50% and 60% of Hispanic, Asian and Native American/Alaska Native women.
These differences in partnering rates also hold for women who grew up in lower- and upper-income families. At each point in the childhood family income spectrum, White women were at least 75% more likely than Black women from the same economic background to be partnered.