- The Iona Institute - https://ionainstitute.ie -

Married mothers earn 63pc more than single mums, latest CSO figures show

Mothers who are married earn considerably more [1] than mothers who are not according to the CSO’s latest release “Earnings Among Parents in Ireland 2016 & 2022”. Some of this is likely to be social class related. Middle class people are much more likely to be married [2] than people from more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

Median weekly earnings among males in married couples were 35.3% higher than among males in one-parent families with children, while females in married couples with children had earnings 63.2% higher than their counterparts in one-parent families.

Median weekly earnings were lowest for employments among one-parent families with children at €491.20 and highest for employments among married couples with children at €911.35.

In general, the distribution of earnings among males in each family unit type followed a similar trend to the total male population, while a considerably higher proportion of females in one-parent families with children were at the lower end of the distribution, compared with other females.

Referring to a so-called “earning gap”, Dr Eimear Heffernan, Statistician in the Earnings Analysis Division, said: “In 2022, the largest earnings gap between female parents in married couples and one-parent families was in the 25-34 years age group where median weekly earnings among females in married couples with children were 102.2% higher than their one-parent counterparts”.