The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released a research report Thursday. It argues the design of welfare programs likely keeps some American couples from marriage. Those couples might otherwise get married. If they did marry it would benefit society. Marriage provides empirically validated benefits.
ICYMI: The Evolution of Evolution as BLM Forces Museum to ‘Rethink’ Darwin
The report author is AEI scholar Bradford Wilcox who notes, that thresholds for eligibility for certain welfare programs and tax credits only let couples access them if they keep their incomes separate. This discourages marriage. Research further shows this helps perpetuate a “marriage gap” between the affluent and those of more modest means. This in turn perpetuates the cycle of poverty.
The report argues that government policy stands in the way of marriage formation. It also perpetuates socioeconomic inequality. The intention is to highlight a policy concern. Hopefully understanding the concern may generate support from lawmakers on both the left and right to act.
Government policy should not discourage marriage
The report highlights the way that such marriage penalties discourage couples from tying the knot. For example: Assume a pregnant mother earning $21,000 a year. If she cohabitates with the father of her child, earning $29,000 a year, she is Medicaid-eligible. But if the two marry, their joint annual income would render her ineligible for Medicaid coverage for her birth. She is out of pocket on average $12,000. Conclusion: The structure of welfare discourages marriage. It imposes a marriage penalty.
Such marriage penalties have an effect on the number of people making the choice to marry. Research cited by the report finds a $1,000 increase in the marriage penalty results in a 1.7% decrease in the marriage. This is including a 2.7% drop among those without a college degree. Angela Rachidi, a scholar at AEI notes in her analysis of data on parents of new children, about half faced a penalty.
Survey data also support the finding. According to the report, 31% of respondents to a 2015 survey said they knew someone who had chosen not to get married for fear of losing “welfare benefits, Medicaid, food stamps, or other government benefits.”
These disincentives are likely part of the widening “marriage gap.” Research released Wednesday by the Institute for Family Studies found that 42% of “lower-income” Americans ages 25-50 had never married. This compares to 23% of “higher income” Americans. That gap has notably widened since 1980. Then the difference was just 2%. Government welfare and tax rules keep Americans from marrying.
The current policy has different impacts at differing income levels
That marriage gap likely furthers socioeconomic inequality. Kids who grow up in homes with married parents are more likely to graduate college. They are more likely to make more than their parents. Kids from two-parent homes are less likely to experience poverty, teenage pregnancy, or incarceration. Research from Harvard’s Raj Chetty finds living in a neighborhood with intact families is one of the major drivers of lifetime social mobility.
Marriage penalties have been a part of public policy conversations. But, Wilcox argues policymakers focus is largely on marriage penalties in policies affecting high earning Americans. The average American who experiences much of the effect is ignored.
Wilcox said, “…We have addressed many of the penalties facing upper-income Americans… [but] … we haven’t devoted as much attention to the penalties that face working-class, lower-income families more generally.”
Wilcox argues the need to address these persistent, government-created disparities. He urges policymakers should consider raising thresholds for phasing out access to welfare benefits. An alternative might be transitioning away from phased credits entirely. In doing this we would move toward a more universal child payment.
Wilcox said, “… From a justice perspective, it’s time to eliminate the marriage penalty facing low-income families, penalties that are falling hardest on working-class Americans… We’d like to move toward a world where the fears articulated by [a] student I heard from this week, some of the fears of being trapped out of marriage, would no longer be a fear he’d be expressing.”
Government welfare and tax rules keep Americans from marrying. The government should not be working to destroy the nuclear family.
