Income alone cannot close the racial gap in marriage bonuses

Evidence

Table 1.2 shows that single-wage-earner marriage-bonus households are more often white than black—even at higher income levels. Black couples never “earn” their way into marriage bonuses simply by making more money—in fact we see an even wider gap between black and white married couples at the highest income levels. In other words, when black and white Americans marry, they make different choices about spouses working in the paid labor market. (We’ll examine the additional financial obligations that black families often carry—including support of other family members—in chapter 4.) It’s predictable that any system that taxes dual-wage-earner households more will hit black married couples harder than their white counterparts. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 137

Categorization

• QUESTION: Are the different spousal labor-market ‘choices’ truly choices, given discrimination and care obligations?