Economic Inequality of Marital Dissolution in the United States

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A happy marriage can be the hope of every couple who commits to marry as husband and wife. However, not all marriages are eternal and end in a breakup. As a Canadian poet, Rupi Kaur expresses that “Do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you.” It means that decision to wind up a marriage does require rigor, particularly when a person is thinking about divorce, there are economic and non-economic costs to prepare for it or undergo after the divorce. Finally, this shows that ending a marriage is not an easy decision for society, particularly in developed countries where sharp socioeconomic disparities.

The United States is a country that has the highest divorce rate among developed countries (Ono, 2009). Chowdhury (2013) reported that over twenty-three million (9.7%) of the American population were divorced in 2009, down from only 2.2% in 1950. In addition, McErlean (2021) argues that half of the American married couples ever experienced a divorce. Even though, earlier literature shows a declining trend in the crude divorce rate in the United States since the 1980s. Referring to Goldstein (1999), the crude divorce rate can be measured by dividing the number of divorces in a year by the count of married women aged fifteen and over. Using that measure, Amato (2010) mentioned that the crude divorce rate dropped gradually from 5.2 in 1980 to 3.6 in 2006. In line with Amato's research, Cohen (2014) noted a decline during the 2008 economic recession from 20.9 per 1,000 married women to 19.5 in 2009, before returning to 19.8 in 2010. There are no specific factors that influence fluctuations in the crude divorce rate in the United States, but family and household scholars often use a group of variables such as economic well-being and family size (Van Winkle & Leopold, 2021), and spouse’s educational status (McErlean, 2021; Ono, 2009) in their research.

Nonetheless, previous studies have shown that the data mask factual phenomena in society, such as marital instability and the inability to file a divorce. One study, Kennedy & Ruggles (2014) found that statistics and survey data on divorce after 1990 underestimated recent marital instability. Following them, I prefer to use the concept of marital dissolution rather than crude divorce rate to negate those biases in the analysis. According to McErlean (2021), marital dissolution is a condition in which a married couple chooses to live apart in a legal separation or formal divorce. This article aims to explain economic inequalities that might influence the husband and wife's decision to choose legal separation or formal divorce to end their marriage.

 

The trade-off between legal separation and formal divorce: The economic cost perspective

Married Americans who choose to live apart do not always end up divorced. As mentioned earlier, there are two categorizations of marital dissolution, living legal separation or formal divorce. The latter means that the marriage has legally ended while living in a legal separation means that the couple is still married but living apart with mandates from the court about the rights and duties of the couple (Protective, n.d.). An economic consideration exists on married couples’ decisions to end a marriage. The economic factors can be the cause and impact of marital dissolution. These can be economic costs as well as opportunity costs.

High economic costs may befall those who choose to divorce than those who separate legally. According to Protective (n.d.), legally separated spouses are still entitled to health insurance coverage for their spouse's job. Another financial consideration of a person choosing this form is that a person must be married for at least ten years to receive social security and military benefits from his spouse's employment. On the contrary, if the financial benefits are not significant for a person and are sure to end their marriage, a formal divorce may be the best decision to take.

From a causal point of view, married couples facing economic instability during the first years of marriage present a higher risk of divorce (McErlean, 2021). In addition, an economic recession also influences married couples in maintaining the household. The ones who married during the recession may have been more arguably to break up as a response to early economic suspense (McErlean, 2021). In contrast, Chowdhury (2013) reported that 38% of couples from a national survey planning to divorce before the recession had put this plan aside. The economic recession makes divorce unaffordable, especially if they are struggling economically. Therefore, applying for divorce is a lousy option for a married couple where opting for legal separation can be better for both.

Regardless of how economic factors might influence the decision to divorce, how much does it cost to file for divorce? According to Williams (2020), the total cost of a divorce based on the legal website Nolo.com suggests that the average total cost is $12,900, embracing attorney fees, court costs, tax advisors, and real estate appraisers, not to mention if the divorce filing is a contested divorce. A contested divorce means that married couples have a significant disagreement about something – or anything. Moreover, the costs are utterly fantastic, especially if the married couples are in difficult financial conditions. By being aware of that condition, many couples who wanted to separate and divorce had either put their cases on hold out of economic necessity or looking for more cost-efficient means (Chowdhury, 2013), and one of the best ways is to agree with your soon-to-be ex-couple on whatever you can tolerate (Williams, 2020). What is more, if they want to remarry, they need a divorce because they cannot lawfully remarry with a previous marriage in place. McErlean (2021) noted that lack of formal divorce hinders remarriage, the most common way for women to recover financially after divorce.

 

Economic inequality of divorce: who will suffer the most?

The high economic costs of divorce, both the expense of filing a divorce and its opportunity costs may well influence the fluctuations in the divorce rate in the US. Therefore, acknowledging the fact that there exists a stratification of social and economic status in American society. The discussion about divorce can also capture economic inequality to analyze who benefits more, both access to divorce and the impact of divorce.

Chowdhury (2013) stated in many divorces, one or both partners are involved in losing their job, their job is in jeopardy, or facing reduced hours or wages. Specifically, McErlean (2021) claimed that women lose more financially in divorce than men. In addition, divorce is more robust among lower-status women in the US (Ono, 2009). Furthermore, Van Winkle & Leopold (2021) reveal that women without children do not recuperate from the economic losses associated with divorce, while women with children tend to recover partially in the medium term. It happens as the United States has a policy that addresses the disadvantage among children from a divorce that comes from low parental resources can focus on strengthening institutionalized support for poor mothers (Ono, 2009).

Last but not least, a spouse's educational level at the time of divorce may also explain the economic inequalities associated with divorce. Goldstein (1999) argued that educational attainment is an indicator of the economic independence of females. The more educated a person is, the more losses in divorce, so they become less permissive to divorce, while those who are less educated, who face everyday uncertainties, are more permissive in dealing with these uncertainties (McErlean, 2021). However, a lower status also prevents access to a range of resources that help couples resolve marital issues (Ono, 2009). Therefore, the least educated are more likely to informally separate rather than formal divorce, and all of those negative consequences lead to gender and class inequality reproduced through the family structure (McErlean, 2021; Ono, 2009).

 

 

References

Amato, P. R. (2010). Research on divorce: Continuing trends and new developments. In Journal of Marriage and Family (Vol. 72, Issue 3, pp. 650–666). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00723.x

Chowdhury, A. (2013). ’Til recession do us part: Booms, busts, and divorce in the united states. Applied Economics Letters, 20(3), 255–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2012.689104

Cohen, P. N. (2014). Recession and Divorce in the United States, 2008–2011. Population Research and Policy Review, 33(5), 615–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9323-z

Goldstein, J. R. (1999). The leveling of divorce in the United States. Demography, 36(3), 409–414. https://doi.org/10.2307/2648063

Kennedy, S., & Ruggles, S. (2014). Breaking Up Is Hard to Count: The Rise of Divorce in the United States, 1980-2010. Demography, 51(2), 587–598. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0270-9

McErlean, K. (2021). The growth of education differentials in marital dissolution in the United States. Demographic Research, 45, 841–856. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2021.45.26

Ono, H. (2009). Husbands’ and wives’ education and divorce in the United States and Japan, 1946-2000. Journal of Family History, 34(3), 292–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199009337996

Protective (n.d). Legal separation vs. divorce: know the difference. https://www.protective.com/learn/legal-separation-or-divorce

Van Winkle, Z., & Leopold, T. (2021). Family size and economic wellbeing following divorce: The United States in comparative perspective. Social Science Research, 96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102541

William, Geoff. (2020, Dec. 21). Cost Breakdown of a Divorce. U.S.News. https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/cost-breakdown-of-a-divorce