New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that in married couple families, women are making gains in earnings. For example, the percentage of women in married couple families who earn $30,000 or more than their husbands rose from 6 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2015, a 50 percent increase. Married couple families where the husband earned $30,000 more than the wife decreased from 38 percent to 35 percent.
Here are some more interesting statistics from the new Census data:
- Spouses earn within $5,000 of each other in about one quarter of all married couple families.
- Of the women who earned more than $100,000 in 2015, nearly two thirds were married and lived with their spouse. For women who earned between $15,000 and $25,000, only 45 percent were in married couple families.
- Of the women aged 45 to 49 in 2015 who made more than $100,000, 15.1 percent had never been married. For men in this age group who earned over $100,000 in 2015, 5.5 percent had never been married.