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Job Quality and the Educational Gradient in Entry Into Marriage and Cohabitation

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  • Daniel Schneider

    (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Kristen Harknett

    (University of California, San Francisco)

  • Matthew Stimpson

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

Men’s and women’s economic resources are important determinants of marriage timing. Prior demographic and sociological literature has often measured resources in narrow terms, considering employment and earnings and not more fine-grained measures of job quality. Yet, scholarship on work and inequality focuses squarely on declining job quality and rising precarity in employment and suggests that this transformation may matter for the life course. Addressing the disconnect between these two important areas of research, this study analyzes data on the 1980–1984 U.S. birth cohort from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to examine the relationships between men’s and women’s job quality and their entry into marital or cohabiting unions. We advance existing literature by moving beyond basic measures of employment and earnings and investigating how detailed measures of job quality matter for union formation. We find that men and women in less precarious jobs—both jobs with standard work schedules and those that provide fringe benefits—are more likely to marry. Further, differences in job quality explain a significant portion of the educational gradient in entry into first marriage. However, these dimensions of job quality are not predictive of cohabitation.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Schneider & Kristen Harknett & Matthew Stimpson, 2019. "Job Quality and the Educational Gradient in Entry Into Marriage and Cohabitation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 451-476, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:56:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13524-018-0749-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0749-5
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    4. Kate Choi & Yue Qian, 2023. "Differences in occupational homogamy by race, ethnicity, and national origin: A social mobility strategy for Asian Americans," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(18), pages 483-512.

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