How Family Structures Economic Success in America: creating divergent destinies for far too many families

Being married has a lot to do 

with economic success, scholars say

By Michelle Singletary 

Brad Wilcox's report, 'For Richer, For Poorer: How Family Structures Economic Success in America,' demonstrates that 'the retreat from marriage — especially among lower-income Americans, and the resulting change in family structures — is a major factor contributing to the economic inequality in the United States,' writes Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary, a recent AEI event panelist.

This year, I’m celebrating 23 years of marriage.

In addition to the joy of being wed to my best friend, our relationship has economically lifted my life and that of my nuclear and extended family. Being married has netted results that neither of us could have dreamed of coming from low-income households.

And so I readily embrace the findings of a new report that makes the case that the retreat from marriage — especially among lower-income Americans, and the resulting change in family structures — is a major factor contributing to the economic inequality in the United States.

It may seem old-fashioned, but marriage matters.

Researchers W. Bradford Wilcox and Robert I. Lerman have collaborated on a study that I hope will spur lots of conversation and programs to strengthen and encourage marriage. The report isn’t about criticizing the life choices people make. There is no judgment in the findings. Rather, their research shows that stable, two-parent families decrease the chance of people ending up impoverished.

Wilcox is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and directs the school’s National Marriage Project. Lerman is the Urban Institute’s fellow in labor and social policy and a professor of economics at American University.“Changes in family formation and stability are central to the changing economic landscape of American families, to the declining economic status of men, and to worries about the health of the American dream,” Wilcox and Lerman write.

In “For Richer, For Poorer: How Family Structures Economic Success in America,” Wilcox and Lerman break down their research into five areas. Yet I want to concentrate on one overarching finding — that lower marriage trends have shifted the economic fortunes of many families.

The median income of families with children would have been 44 percent higher in 2012 had we had the same level of married parenthood as we did in the 1980s, the report says.“The data strongly suggest that had marriage rates not declined substantially among parents, many more families would have attained middle-class incomes, and the inequality across families would have increased at a slower rate,” Wilcox and Lerman write.

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