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Single Women Lag in Pay, Education as Workforce Shifts From ’90s

Single Women Lag in Pay, Education as Workforce Shifts From ’90s

Partnered women are more educated and make more money than single women compared to three decades ago.

American women who had a partner made $40,000 on average in 2019, $13,100 more than they made in 1990, according to a Pew Research Center study released Tuesday. The average income for single women, who in 1990 out-earned their partnered peers, has remained stagnant at about $32,300.

“This is due in large part to the growing share of mothers who have entered the labor force since 1990,” the study says.

Partnered women -- those who are either married or cohabitating -- are now also more educated than single ones. Those who have at least a bachelor’s degree has almost doubled to 43%. About 33% of single women now have a college degree, up from 23% in 1990.

Still, a global child-care crisis could slow partnered women’s advancement. Married women are almost twice as likely as their single counterparts to have a child under 18 in their households, according to Pew, and they are often the ones who carry the burden of the child-care shortage.

Today, about half of all U.S. adults ages 25 to 54 are married, a number that was closer to seven in 10 Americans in 1990. The proportion of adults neither married nor cohabitating has risen to 38% in 2019 from 29% three decades ago. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.