The relationship between marital status and labour market outcomes in the South African economy

Abstract

Marriage has the potential to irreversibly change one‟s life, both socially and economically. For this reason, it is pertinent to investigate and understand the influences that marriage holds over the labour market outcomes of a country. This greater understanding is achieved through investigation of the influence of marriage on labour force participation, employment, and the gender wage gap in South Africa. The impact on labour force participation and employment is gauged through logistic regressions. The gender wage gap is calculated with propensity score matching and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The results indicated that widows are more likely to be employed than married women are and that they earn more than widowers do. The results were, however, not as positive in all marital statuses. In all the other marital statuses, men earn more than women do. The findings also show that women are least likely to be employed when they are married. Marriage influences the labour market outcomes for women differently than for men. This is an important certitude, especially for policy makers that have to consider how their policies will differently affect men and women, and thereby work either against or for gender equality