Wage penalties and the second earner : career hierarchy in dual-earner families

rise of the dual-earner family has come a question of increasing relevance to labor economists, demographers, and sociologists alike. Specifically, how might career hierarchy , that is, one spouse's job or career taking precedence over the other's, affect labor market outcomes? The possibility that career hierarchy affects wage outcomes in particular raises an important policy question: Do women receive lower wages in part because they tend to have the " secondary career " in the family? Using data on spouses' relative earnings and attitudes taken from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), this paper investigates the likely patterns of career hierarchy in families and then examine some implications career hierarchy may have for women's wages. To date, the concept of career hierarchy in dual-earner families has received little attention with the exception of a recent survey by the Catalyst Organization (1998). The Catalyst study asked 802 husbands and wives who both work full-time: "Thinking about your career and your spouse's career, do you consider one career to be primary?" In response to this question, only 6 to 9 percent of wives were classified as primary, compared to 33 to 45 percent of husbands, depending on the gender of the respondent. The remaining couples were classified as having equal careers. The study also indicated a strong tie between relative spousal earnings and career hierarchy, with over two-thirds of respondents stating that their current or future salary was the main reason for their response. Related research has focused on the direct effects of family migration and job mobility on women's wages. (1997). In what follows, this paper steps back from observed mobility and/or migration decisions studied in this literature to look at the more fundamental question of how career hierarchy might affect wages, viewing actual mobility events and wages as both being consequences of career hierarchy. The study of career hierarchy in the family is perhaps most closely related to work by sociologists who have studied the concept of the family breadwinner and its implications for Note, however, that even when both partners are defined as breadwinners (both bear responsibility as providers and neither has the option to leave the labor force), there still remains the issue of whose career takes precedence and its consequent effects. The possibility that career hierarchy affects wage outcomes in particular raises an important policy question.