Honey I Love You, but … Investigating the Causes of the Earnings Penalty of Being a Tied-migrant Military Spouse

Abstract

Editor's note: This is the second of three articles in this issue's special section on military families. AbstractPrior empirical research on the earnings penalty of being a tied-migrant has focused primarily on the working wives of servicemen. Over the last couple of decades the increased number of women in the armed forces makes it feasible to study the earnings of another group of tied-migrants, the husbands of servicewomen. Using data from the 2000 U.S. Census, Sample Edited Detail File (SEDF), we show that there is a consistently lower age-earnings pattern for military husbands as well as wives. These annual earnings patterns capture the essence of, but do not provide an explanation for, the observed annual earnings differences. These differences are evaluated using multivariate analysis accounting for sample selectivity. Moreover, decomposition analysis strongly suggests that demand-side factors account for a greater portion of the differences in annual earnings than has been previously acknowledged and, therefore, that retention might respond favorably to job matching assistance and/or employer hiring incentives offered military spouses.

The Tied Migrant Employment Penalty: Public Perceptions of Military Spouses Seeking Work

“…For military wives, migration is associated with a 10% decline in employment and four-hour decline in hours worked per week; for military husbands, migration is associated with 6% employment decline and a five-hour reduction in hours worked per week (Cooke and Speirs 2005). Similarly, Hisnanick and Little (2015) found that military spousesboth men and women -experience a similar earnings gap, although the penalty is a bit sharper for women (43% for husbands and 53% for wives). Because of the demonstrated employment challenges military spouses encounter (Bradbard et al 2016;Castaneda and Harrell 2007;Hosek and Wadsworth 2013), it is expected that military spouses will be evaluated lower than comparable civilian spouses.…”

Advancing the Careers of Military Spouses: An Assessment of Education and Employment Goals and Barriers Facing Military Spouses Eligible for MyCAA

“…Research has shown that military spouses tend to have more years of education than their civilian counterparts, yet they are generally less likely to be employed, and those who are employed tend to earn less, due in part to aspects of military life, such as frequent moves that disrupt employment, and depressed labor markets around military bases (Booth, 2003;Booth et al, 2000;Booth, Segal, and Bell, 2007;Cooney, 2003;Cooney, De Angelis, and Segal, 2011;Cooke and Speirs, 2005;Harrell et al, 2004;Heaton and Krull, 2012;Hisnanick and Little, 2014;Kniskern and Segal, 2010;Lim, Golinelli, and Cho, 2007;Little and Hisnanick, 2007).…”

“…An abundance of evidence suggests that military spouses are less likely to be employed than are their civilian counterparts, and that those who are employed earn less (Hosek et al, 2002;Harrell et al, 2004;Lim, Golinelli, and Cho, 2007;Hisnanick and Little, 2014). Some of these differences may be due to basic differences in the background and demographic characteristics between military and civilian spouses.…”

“…Research has just begun to separately consider the needs of the smaller population of male civilian spouses (Hisnanick and Little, 2014;Lim, Golinelli, and Cho, 2007). Historically, the U.S. military population has been nearly all or mostly male, and thus programs aimed at military spouses were very practically aimed at women (Segal, 1986).…”

“…Historically, the U.S. military population has been nearly all or mostly male, and thus programs aimed at military spouses were very practically aimed at women (Segal, 1986). Still, features of military life appear to affect male spouses' careers as well, as they, too, experience a wage gap relative to the husbands of civilian women (Cooney, De Angelis, and Segal, 2011;Hisnanick and Little, 2014). In addition, one study found that whereas civilian husbands married to military women had better employment outcomes than did civilian wives married to military men, husbands were less satisfied with their outcomes than were wives.…”