The Hard Economic Fact for Unmarried Women: They Make Less

October 15, 2015

A look at median income by marital status reveals two facts to consider as the nation and states contemplate increasing the minimum wage, allowing workers to earn paid sick time, and enacting other policies and programs that would touch and improve the lives of most Americans:

Unmarried women make less than other Americans.

Single women and men make less than married people.

Married men make close to 40 percent more ($22,319) than women who are divorced, separated, widowed or who never have been married.

What We're Reading

U.S. Census: Unmarried and Single Americans Week

To commemorate Unmarried and Single Americans Week (September 17-23), the U.S. Census has produced a “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) of 2016 census data about unmarried Americans. Here are some of the highlights:

There are 110.6 unmarried people 18 or older in America, making up 45.2% of the U.S. adult population.
35.4 million Americans lived alone in 2016, representing 28.1% of all US households — up from 17.1% in 1970.
Despite unmarried people being 45.2% of the U.S. adult population, only 39.6% of voters in the 2016 presidential election were unmarried.

Read the rest of the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) on unmarried Americans.

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(CNN)In 2018, the American electorate will cross a historic threshold that could reshape the political balance of power-or leave Democrats fuming in frustration at continued Republican dominance of Washington.

For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote, according to the well-respected demographic forecasts from the States of Change project at the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group. That transition will end a remarkable four decades of dominance for the baby boomers, who have been the largest generation of eligible voters since 1978, when they surpassed what’s been popularly referred to as the Greatest Generation (or G.I. Generation) raised during the Depression. Read more here.

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Demographic change is slowly, but inevitably, moving Western states to the left.

By Reid Wilson

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The Hard Economic Fact for Unmarried Women: They Make Less

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