Women who earn more than their partners still pay the price at work, landmark study finds

A 22-year study of more than 7,200 couples reveals that women who bring home the bigger pay packet still shoulder much of the housework, potentially damaging their chances of promotion

Women who earn more than their male partners still face career setbacks because they take on a disproportionate share of household chores, according to a landmark new study.

Researchers found that women had better promotion prospects when both partners earned similarly high salaries than when either partner was the main breadwinner.

The study, involving 7,252 heterosexual couples in Australia over 22 years, examined how household earnings and the division of domestic responsibilities affected career progression.

It found that women continued to shoulder substantial household responsibilities even when they earned more than their partners, potentially limiting their opportunities at work.

Researchers, including Assistant Professor Hyejin Yu of France’s NEOMA Business School, suggest that traditional gender expectations may explain the findings.

Men are still widely expected to be the main earners, leaving women who out-earn their partners under pressure to demonstrate their commitment to domestic responsibilities.

The resulting workload was associated with poorer promotion prospects. Men’s careers were not affected in the same way, according to the study that was published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Women in households where both partners earned similarly high salaries fared better, partly because they undertook less housework.

However, the same benefit was not observed among lower-income couples, where traditional divisions of domestic labour persisted.

The researchers recommend that couples discuss their career ambitions and share household responsibilities more fairly. They also suggest that higher-income households consider domestic help to ease the burden.

Wider recommendations include more equitable parental leave policies and greater salary transparency to tackle the social and economic pressures facing working couples.

READ MORE: The hidden workplace cost of microaggressions against Black women. Workplace microaggressions can force Black women to weigh the professional cost of speaking up or staying silent, giving employers practical as well as moral reason to address them, argues Dawn-Maria France.

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