Abstract
Men’s and women’s economic resources are important determinants of marriage timing. Prior demographic and sociological literature has often measured resources in narrow terms, considering employment and earnings and not more fine-grained measures of job quality. Yet, scholarship on work and inequality focuses squarely on declining job quality and rising precarity in employment and suggests that this transformation may matter for the life course. Addressing the disconnect between these two important areas of research, this study analyzes data on the 1980–1984 U.S. birth cohort from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to examine the relationships between men’s and women’s job quality and their entry into marital or cohabiting unions. We advance existing literature by moving beyond basic measures of employment and earnings and investigating how detailed measures of job quality matter for union formation. We find that men and women in less precarious jobs—both jobs with standard work schedules and those that provide fringe benefits—are more likely to marry. Further, differences in job quality explain a significant portion of the educational gradient in entry into first marriage. However, these dimensions of job quality are not predictive of cohabitation.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
For employed person-weeks with no main job indicated, we designate the job with the largest number of hours as the main job.
We also check the robustness of the results to using a lag that measured the covariates at a point in time (rather than the 12-month average of the period 6–17 months prior). We test using lags that were 12 months prior and 6 months prior to the event month. These models show very similar results. However, for men, the fringe benefits scale is a weaker predictor of marriage when we use 12-month lags but a stronger predictor of marriage when we use 6-month lags compared with the preferred models. Additionally, for both the 12- and 6-month lag, the benefits scale coefficient predicts cohabitation entry more strongly than in the main models.
We also reestimate the models restricted to respondents who were cohabiting in the month prior to measurement of the dependent variable. The results are unchanged despite a large reduction in sample size: working a split/rotating shift remains negatively associated with marriage for women, hourly work remains negatively associated with marriage for men, and fringe benefits remain positively associated with marriage for both men and women. These predictors of first marriage entry are similar whether respondents enter marriage from cohabitation or not.
References
Addo, F. (2014). Debt, cohabitation, and marriage in young adulthood. Demography, 51, 1677–1701.
Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J.-S. (2009). Mostly harmless econometrics: An empiricist’s companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Becker, G. S. (1981). A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Boushey, H. (2016). Finding time: The economics of work-life conflict. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brenan. M. (2017). Hourly workers unhappier than salaried on many job aspects (Gallup research report). Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/216746/hourly-workers-unhappier-salaried-job-aspects.aspx
Bumpass, L. L., & Sweet, J. A. (1989). National estimates of cohabitation. Demography, 26, 615–625.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2015). National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, 1997–2013 (Rounds 1–16). Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center, the University of Chicago [Producer]; Columbus: Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State University [Distributor].
Burgess, S., Propper, C., & Aassve, A. (2003). The role of income in marriage and divorce transitions among young Americans. Journal of Population Economics, 16, 455–475.
Burstein, N. (2007). Economic influences on marriage and divorce. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 26, 387–429.
Carlson, M., McLanahan, S., & England, P. (2004). Union formation in fragile families. Demography, 41, 237–261.
Carrillo, D., Harknett, K., Logan, A., Luhr, S., & Schneider, D. (2017). Instability of work and care: How work schedules shape child-care arrangements for parents working in the service sector. Social Service Review, 91, 422–455.
Cherlin, A. J. (2004). The deinstitutionalization of American marriage. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 848–861.
Cherlin, A. J. (2010). Demographic trends in the United States: A review of research in the 2000s. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 403–419.
Cherlin, A. J. (2015). Labor’s love lost: The rise and fall of the working-class family in America. New York, NY: Russell Sage.
Clarkberg, M. (1999). The price of partnering: The role of economic well-being in young adults’ first union experiences. Social Forces, 77, 945–968.
Davis, K., & Blake, J. (1956). Social structure and fertility: An analytic framework. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 4, 211–235.
Dunn, M., & Walker, J. (2016). BLS spotlight on statistics: Union membership in the United States (Spotlight on Statistics Report No. 9-2016). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Edin, K., & Kefalas, M. (2005). Promises I can keep: Why poor women put motherhood before marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ellwood, D. T., & Jencks, C. (2004). The uneven spread of single-parent families: What do we know? Where do we look for answers? In K. M. Neckerman (Ed.), Social inequality (pp. 3–70). New York, NY: Russell Sage.
Farber, H., & Levy, H. (2000). Recent trends in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage: Are bad jobs getting worse? Journal of Health Economics, 19, 93–119.
Fligstein, N., & Shin, T.-J. (2004). The shareholder value society: A review of the changes in working conditions and inequality in the United States, 1976 to 2000. In K. M. Neckerman (Ed.), Social inequality (pp. 401–432). New York, NY: Russell Sage.
Gibson-Davis, C., Edin, K., & McLanahan, S. (2005). High hopes but even higher expectations: The retreat from marriage among low-income couples. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 1301–1312.
Glynn, S. J., Boushey, H., & Berg, P. (2016). Who gets time off? Predicting access to paid leave and workplace flexibility. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.
Goldstein, J., & Kenney, C. (2001). Marriage delayed or marriage forgone? New cohort forecasts of first marriage for U.S. women. American Sociological Review, 66, 506–519.
Hacker, J. S. (2006). The great risk shift: The new economic insecurity and the decline of the American dream. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Harknett, K., & Kuperberg, A. (2011). Education, labor markets and the retreat from marriage. Social Forces, 90, 41–63.
Harknett, K., & McLanahan, S. (2004). Racial and ethnic differences in marriage after the birth of a child. American Sociological Review, 69, 790–811.
Henly, J. R., & Lambert, S. J. (2014). Unpredictable work timing in retail jobs: Implications for employee work–life conflict. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 67, 986–1016.
Henly, J. R., Shaefer, H. L., & Waxman, E. (2006). Nonstandard work schedules: Employer- and employee-driven flexibility in retail jobs. Social Service Review, 80, 609–634.
Hipple, S. F. (2010). Multiple jobholding during the 2000s. Monthly Labor Review, 133(7), 21–32.
Isen, A., & Stevenson, B. (2010). Women’s education and family behavior: Trends in marriage, divorce and fertility (NBER Working Paper No. 15725). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Ishizuka, P. (2018). The economic foundations of cohabiting couples’ union transitions. Demography, 55, 535–557.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2009). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74, 1–22.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2011). Good jobs, bad jobs: The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s–2000s (American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology). New York, NY: Russell Sage.
Karlson, K. B., Holm, A., & Breen, R. (2012). Comparing regression coefficients between same-sample nested models using logit and probit: A new method. Sociological Methodology, 42, 286–313.
Kuo, J. C.-L., & Raley, R. K. (2014). Is it all about money? Work characteristics and women’s and men’s marriage formation in early adulthood. Journal of Family Issues, 37, 1046–1073.
Lalé, E. (2015). Multiple jobholding over the past two decades. Monthly Labor Review, April. https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2015.7
Lambert, S. (2008). Passing the buck: Labor flexibility practices that transfer risk onto hourly workers. Human Relations, 61, 1203–1227.
Lichter, D. T., McLaughlin, D. K., Kephart, G., & Landry, D. J. (1992). Race and the retreat from marriage: A shortage of marriageable men? American Sociological Review, 57, 781–799.
Lichter, D. T., Qian, Z., & Mellott, L. M. (2006). Marriage or dissolution? Union transitions among poor cohabiting women. Demography, 43, 223–240.
Lundberg, S., & Pollak, R. (2015). The evolving role of marriage: 1950–2010. Future of Children, 25(2), 29–50.
Lyonette, C., & Crompton, R. (2014). Sharing the load? Partners’ relative earnings and the division of domestic labour. Work, Employment and Society, 29, 23–40.
Manning, W., Smock, P., Dorius, C., & Cooksey, E. (2014). Cohabitation expectations among young adults in the United States: Do they match behavior? Population Research and Policy Review, 33, 287–305.
McClendon, D., Kuo, J. C.-L., & Raley, K. (2014). Opportunities to meet: Occupational education and marriage formation in young adulthood. Demography, 51, 1319–1344.
McLanahan, S. (2004). Diverging destinies: How children are faring under the second demographic transition. Demography, 41, 607–627.
Mishel, L., Bivens, J., Gould, E., & Shierholz, H. (2012). The state of working America (Economic Policy Institute Book, 12th ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Mood, C. (2010). Logistic regression: Why we cannot do what we think we can do, and what we can do about it. European Sociological Review, 26, 67–82.
National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. (n.d.). NLSY97 sample weights and design effects. Retrieved from https://www.nlsinfo.org/content/cohorts/nlsy97/using-and-understanding-the-data/sample-weights-design-effects
Nock, S. (1995). A comparison of marriages and cohabiting relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 16, 53–76.
Nock, S. (2005). Marriage as a public issue. Future of Children, 15(2), 13–32.
Oppenheimer, V. (1988). A theory of marriage timing. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 563–591.
Oppenheimer, V. (2003). Cohabiting and marriage during young men’s career development process. Demography, 40, 127–149.
Oppenheimer, V., Kalmijn, M., & Lim, N. (1997). Men’s career development and marriage timing during a period of rising inequality. Demography, 34, 311–330.
Perelli-Harris, B., & Lyons-Amos, M. (2016). Partnership patterns in the United States and across Europe: The role of education and country context. Social Forces, 95, 251–281.
Perelli-Harris, B., Sigle-Rushton, W., Kreyenfeld, M., Lappegård, T., Keizer, R., & Berghammer, C. (2010). The educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation in Europe. Population and Development Review, 36, 775–801.
Piotrowski, M., Kalleberg, A., & Rindfuss, R. R. (2015). Contingent work rising: Implications for the timing of marriage in Japan. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77, 1039–1056.
Polikoff, N. D. (2012). “Two parts of the landscape of family in America”: Maintaining both spousal and domestic partner employee benefits for both same-sex and different-sex couples. Fordham Law Review, 81, 735–760.
Presser, H. B. (1999). Toward a 24-hour economy. Science, 284, 1778–1779.
Presser, H. B. (2005). Working in a 24/7 economy: Challenges for American families. New York, NY: Russell Sage.
Raley, R. K. (1996). A shortage of marriageable men? A note on the role of cohabitation in black-white differences in marriage rates. American Sociological Review, 61, 973–983.
Sassler, S. (2004). The process of entering into cohabiting unions. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 491–505.
Sassler, S., & Goldscheider, F. (2004). Revisiting Jane Austen’s theory of marriage timing: Changes in union formation among American men in the late 20th century. Journal of Family Issues, 25, 139–166.
Sassler, S., & Miller, A. J. (2011). Class differences in cohabitation processes. Family Relations, 60, 163–177.
Sassler, S., & Miller, A. J. (2017). Cohabitation nation: Gender, class, and the remaking of relationships. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schieman, S., & Plickert, G. (2008). How knowledge is power: Education and the sense of control. Social Forces, 87, 153–183.
Schmitt, J., & Warner, K. (2009). The changing face of labor, 1983–2008. Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Schneider, D. (2011). Wealth and the marital divide. American Journal of Sociology, 117, 627–667.
Schneider, D., & Harknett, K. (Forthcoming). Consequences of routine schedule instability for worker health and wellbeing. American Sociological Review.
Schneider, D., Harknett, K., & Stimpson, M. (2018). What explains the decline in first marriage in the United States? Evidence from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, 1969–2013. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80, 791–811.
Schneider, D., & Reich, A. (2014). Marrying ain’t hard when you got a union card? Labor union membership and first marriage. Social Problems, 61, 625–643.
Shafer, K., & James, S. (2013). Gender and socioeconomic status differences in first and second marriage formation. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75, 544–564.
Sohn, H. (2015). Health insurance and risk of divorce: Does having your own insurance matter? Journal of Marriage and Family, 77, 982–995.
Steverman, B. (2014, November 10). What the economy has done to the family. Bloomberg Business. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-10/how-the-bad-economy-breaks-up-families
Sweeney, M. (2002). Two decades of family change: The shifting economic foundations of marriage. American Sociological Review, 67, 132–147.
Thornton, A., Axinn, W. G., & Teachman, J. D. (1995). The influence of school enrollment and accumulation on cohabitation and marriage in early adulthood. American Sociological Review, 60, 762–774.
Thornton, A., Axinn, W. G., & Xie, Y. (2007). Marriage and cohabitation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Wang, W., & Parker, K. (2014). Record share of Americans have never married: As values, economics and gender patterns change. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner-city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Xie, Y., Raymo, J., Goyette, K., & Thornton, A. (2003). Economic potential and entry into marriage and cohabitation. Demography, 20, 351–367.
Zangelidis, A. (2014). Labour market insecurity and second job-holding in Europe. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Economics, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2615268
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge grant support from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth (Award No. 39092) and the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. A previous version of this article was presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(PDF 280 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schneider, D., Harknett, K. & Stimpson, M. Job Quality and the Educational Gradient in Entry Into Marriage and Cohabitation. Demography 56, 451–476 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0749-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0749-5