Marriage costs women on the fifth average of their income, according to researchers at the IFO Institute in Munich, who issued their results on Friday, coincides with the day of equality in wages.
“Our research shows that in marriage, income variations between men and women increases, and this is independent of the birth of children,” said IFO Elena Herold. She added that the effects become clear within a few years after marriage.
Salary Equality Day – A mark was placed in Germany on March 7 this year, or 18 % per year – a symbol of the amount of the year in which women work for free on average, compared to the salaries that men receive for equal work.
Looking at how men and women’s income changed after marriage compared to the year before the wedding, there are no major abnormal cases for men, according to Herold. For women, she indicated that there is a strong decrease over several years.
“This is not only because of marriage, as the first children in the years arrive at the wedding. But even if you think about this effect, there is a 20 % income degradation for women.” She said, including the effects of having children, is about half.
She pointed out that the difference is made by marriage, and not coexistence: “For husbands who lived together before marriage, we do not see any different effects from those who move only with the wedding ceremony,” said Herold. She added that the largest legal security provided by marriage encourages women to reduce their working hours.
Wages in the hour are not affected
Decreased income is not due to low wages for women. There are no significant changes in profits per hour as a result of marriage. Instead, about one in 10 women stop completely from working, and the rest work about five less, with the development of the effect over several years.
In parallel with this, the work carried out by women in the family increases by about five-not including raising children. The study found that this was not noticed in men.
According to the study, one of the reasons for low working hours is inhibitors in the tax system. “A quarter of the low income for married women is due to the usual relief in the marital state,” he said.
Another aspect is the roles of the sexes. “For women who are in East Germany before reunification, we see less negative effects than women from West Germany,” Herld said.
Low income for women after marriage is not just a German phenomenon.
“If you look at the number of women who are completely stopped in the years after the wedding, Germany is almost in the European central regions, in the Netherlands or Ireland, then the detailed income data of international comparisons, but if it looks at the number of women in the years that followed the wedding, Germany is almost on European Central Earth,” he said.
