Earning less than your partner has an impact on the mental well-being of men, but not on the joy of life of women.
- Men express an amplification of their happiness in response to a recent increase in their income relative to that of their wives.
- In France, wage inequalities between men and women are still a reality.
Men who earn less than their partner tend to have a bad time, while the reverse is not true, according to a new study. Contrary to previous research on the impact of the pay gap, “we studied the effects of recent changes in relative income levels within couples as well as labor market transitions”, write the researchers from the City University of London, published in SAGE.
40,000 UK households
Based on a longitudinal study, they found that “men express an amplification of their happiness in response to a recent increase in their income compared to that of their wives”. And : “For women, changes in proportional earnings had no effect on their zest for life. We also find that men who earn less income than their wives report lower personal satisfaction than men earning the same or more than their wives, while no such differences were found for women”.
To reach these conclusions, the academics analyzed surveys carried out among a panel of 40,000 British households as part of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. The data was collected between 2009 and 2017.
In full-time equivalent, French women earn 18.5% less than men
In France, wage inequalities between men and women are still a reality. In full-time equivalent, women earn 18.5% less than men, according to INSEE. The feminist collective Les Glorieuses has thus calculated that by relating this gap to the average annual salary, French women have been working voluntarily since November 4, and this until the end of 2020.
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