Marriage Breadwinner Benefits

If you’re married and you’re the one bringing home the bacon—or most of the bacon, anyway—you may feel that the odds are stacked against your relationship. (Even if you’re not, you might be wondering how it’d affect your relationship if you were, especially as it becomes an increasingly real possibility: 40 percent of American households today are supported by moms, and the number is growing.)

In the past six months, we’ve read that higher earning wives are bad for a husband’s “libido” (and, by extension, a couple’s sex life), cause for guilt and resentment and “may be contributing to a decline in the formation and stability of marriages.” One oft-cited University of Chicago paper by female economists, published this May, used national survey data to conclude that couples in which a wife earns more than her spouse are not only “less satisfied with their marriage [but] more likely to divorce.”

Yikes! But let’s look at the bright side for a moment. (And, yes, there is one.) As someone who earns more than her husband and has done extensive research and interviews over the last 18 months for my upcoming book “When She Makes More,” I can confidently say that making more than your beloved—while, most certainly, layered with complexities—can be a winning formula for coupledom.

Check out 5 benefits of a breadwinner in my recent DailyWorth piece.