Exploring Gender Differences in Marriage and Parental Income Premiums among Financial Advisors

This study examined marriage and parental income premiums among financial advisors. Financial advisors provide an interesting context for exploring such premiums, as financial advising is a historically male-dominated profession that has been found to exhibit large unadjusted gender pay gaps. Using a large sample of financial advisors recruited via a professional continuing education website (n=555), this study investigates whether gender differences exist among financial advisors with respect to the marriage premium, the parenthood premium, the parental leave effect, and the stay-at-home spouse premium. This study examined premiums both with and without potentially endogenous human capital covariates. Without including potentially endogenous covariates, a marriage premium was observed among men but not women, a parenthood premium was observed among women but not men, a parental leave premium was observed among neither men nor women, and a stay-at-home spouse premium was observed among men but not women. When potentially endogenous covariates were included, a marriage penalty was observed among women but not men, a parenthood premium was observed among women while a parenthood penalty observed among men, a parental leave premium was observed among men but not women, and a stay-at-home spouse premium was observed among men while a stay-at-home spouse penalty was observed among women. Exploratory Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analyses revealed sizeable unadjusted income gaps by gender (16.7%), marriage (32.8%), parenthood (8.1%), parental leave (16.7%), and spousal employment (39.8%).

Marriage Penalty: Unconditional Quantile Regression of Housework Participation in Japan

We analyze cross-sectional time-use diaries from the 2011 and 2016 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities (Shakai Seikatsu Kihon Chosa) to investigate the association between educational level and housework participation at different quantiles. Using the unconditional quantile regression method, we test whether education is associated with less time spent on housework as the previous research on highly educated people suggests. We find that this hypothesis stands only for non-married Japanese women. On the other hand, among married Japanese women, especially those without children in higher deciles of housework participation, are more likely to increase their participation in housework with the increase in their educational level. The results suggest that in Japan, the institute of marriage places higher expectations on women’s housework participation on married women with higher levels of education.