Research on German scholars shows that marriage generally costs women, on average, five times their income. Scholars noted that the income gap between men and women in marriage increases, which does not depend on the presence of children.
Research showed that after marriage, men and women do not observe a significant difference in income compared to the year preceding marriage. However, women experience a significant decline in income over the following few years. Scholars note that this decline is not solely related to the fact of marriage, as first children are often born during that period which follows marriage, and even after excluding this factor, women's incomes decrease by 20%.
Ilena Herd from the IFo Institute in Munich emphasized that the decline in women's income after entering marriage is not exclusively linked to giving birth to children in the first years after marriage. "Our research shows that even after excluding this influence, women's income decreases by 20%," noted Herd.
