Socioeconomic Status and the Transition to First

Marriage in South Soo-Yeon Yoon (University of Pennsylvania) & Lanu (University of Washington) BackgroundBackground && MotivationsMotivation KoreanKorean ContextContext ofof MarriageMarriage DataData && MethodsMethods ResultsResults (continued)(continued)

Major societal changes leading to increasing economic Percent of Ever-Married Men and Women by Age . Data: Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS) 1998 – 2014 Expected Probability of Marriage by Occupation insecurities and deteriorating job prospects have implications Group, 1985 – 2005 . Analytic sample: never-married men and women aged 19 – 49 for Men and Women not only for the work situations and career opportunities for . Method: discrete-time event history analysis . Strong influence of occupation on marriage for men. young adults (Kalleberg, 2009) but also for their family 1985 Men 1985 Women 2005 Men 2005 Women . Model I = control var. + Education behaviors such as marriage or fertility. 100.0 . Model II = Model I + Employment status . No significant influence on women’s marriage, except for 90.0 . Model III = Model I + Occupation student. 80.0 . Model IV = Model I + Earnings Later marriage as a striking family trend in East Asia (Raymo et 70.0 al., 2015) 60.0 50.0 Mean (median) Age at First Marriage Percent 40.0 30.0 Men Women 20.0 Year Korea U.S. Korea U.S. 10.0 0.0 1980 27.3 24.7 24.1 22.0 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 Age group 1990 27.8 26.1 24.8 23.9 Source: Korean Statistical Information Service. 2000 29.3 26.8 26.5 25.1 2010 31.8 28.2 28.9 26.1 Reasons to Remain Single: Men Source: Korean Statistical Information Service, U.S. Census Bureau. Financial concerns make up about 41% of men’s reasons to Expected Probability of Marriage by Earnings remain single. Socioeconomic status, gender and marriage Results for Men and Women . Becker (1991): role specialization and trading between Economic burdens 7.9 Coefficients from Discrete-Time Hazard Models of . Strong influence of earnings on marriage for men. partners Marriage on SES: Men . Oppenheimer (1988, 1997): both men and women tend Can't afford housing cost 8.3 . No significant influence on marriage for women. to consider similar characteristics (e.g., economic . Every SES measure is significantly associated with men’s Hard to meet someone 8.6 prospects) for selecting a spouse transition to first marriage. Explanation of changing economic foundation of marriage Don't have enough earnings 10.9 . Reference groups: regular jobs for employment; regular white- . Gender-role context (Blossfeld, 1995; Torr, 2011) collar for occupation; 2nd quartile for earnings. . Couldn't find a suitable partner 17.2 . 00 Labor market conditions – growth of non-regular EMPLOYMENT employment (Kim, 2017; Piotrowski et al., 2015) 0 5 10 15 20 student non-regular jobs unemployed Percent (%) 0 What’s Missing in the Literature? -0.2 Reasons to Remain Single: Women -0.4 . Limited attention to the implications of precarious labor -0.6 -0.48 market, which might play out differently for men and Missed an appropriate marrige -0.8 *** women regarding family formation. 6.5 timing -1 . Societal and cultural context in Korea where some aspects Work-family conflict 7.7 -1.2 of gender roles remain traditional. -1.19 DiscussionDiscussion && ConclusionsConclusions -1.4 *** Prefer my career over marriage 9.2 -1.6 -1.63 . A strong positive association between SES and marriage for -1.8 *** Objective & Research Questions Not interested in getting married 11 men OCCUPATION . Earnings appear to be the most important aspect of SES . This study examines the relationship between SES Couldn't find a suitable partner 32.5 non-regular regular blue- non-regular associated with men’s marriage white collar collar blue collar self-employed unemployed . (earnings, occupations, employment status and education) 0 Having a non-regular job or blue-collar job has a negative and first . 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 influence on marriage for men. Percent (%) -0.2 -0.4 . SES is not closely associated with marriage among women. Source: The 2015 National Survey on Fertility and Family Health and -0.34 -0.28 . Investigating the case of Korea furnishes an opportunity not Welfare. Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. -0.6 ** . Women with junior-college education are less likely to only to test existing theories of marriage but to expand -0.8 marry than women with a high-school diploma. theoretical discussion on how the relationship between SES -1 . Women’s SES is treated more like insurance for times of need, Female Labor Force Participation Rate for Ages -1.2 and marriage differs by gender in a context where -1.08 -1.08 complementary to men’s main earnings, rather than a long- -1.4 ** *** egalitarian relations are still incomplete. 30-34, 1992 – 2013 -1.36 term economic prospect. -1.6 *** . The economic foundations of marriage have not yet changed 100 Research Questions EARNINGS to gender symmetry in the family from gendered 1. If there exists a more consistent gender gap in employment 90 no earnings 1st quartile 3rd quartile 4th quartile specialization. than in education, would the effects of education on 80 Denmark 0.6 0.42 Italy 0.4 ** marriage differ from those of employment on marriage for 70 0.2 Acknowledgement women? FLFPR(%) Acknowledgement 60 Korea 0 This work is supported by the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies 2. Given that the importance of economic prospects has -0.2 -0.07 50 through the Ministry of Education of Republic of Korea and Korean increased as the market has become insecure, would single OECD countries -0.4 Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2016- women and men with higher earnings be more likely to 40 -0.6 LAB-2250002). -0.8 -0.62 marry than those with lower earnings? *** -1 -1.12 -1.2 ***