Wage Penalties and the Second Earner: Career Hierarchy in Dual-Earner Families

With the rise of the dual-earner family has come a question of increasing relevance to la- bor economists, demographers, and sociologists alike. Specifically, how might career hier- archy, that is, one spouse's job or career taking precedence over the other's, affect labor market outcomes? The possibility that career hierarchy affects wage outcomes in particu- lar raises an important policy question: Do women receive lower wages in part because they tend to have the "secondary career" in the family? Using data on spouses' relative earnings and attitudes taken from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), this paper investigates the likely patterns of career hierarchy in families and then examine some im- plications career hierarchy may have for women's wages.