Kevin Baldeosingh

Data from the Central Statistical Office show that most women who get married do so between 20 and 24 years of age, while most men who get married are between 25 and 29 years. The second largest cohort getting married is 25-29 for women, 3035 for men. About 45 percent of married women aged 20-24 have partners their age or not more than four years older. But 26 percent are with partners five to nine years older, while 20 percent have partners who are ten or more years older than them. Thus, the proportion of married women with partners significantly older than them is equal to the proportion with partners matched in age. This indicates that hypergamy – the tendency of women to choose men higher than them in status – is a significant operator in mating calculation in Trinidad. Becker notes that “The gain from marriage is greater when differentials between male and female wage rates are greater. For example, a larger percentage of persons are married in American states that have higher wages of males and lower wages of females”(1960). If Becker’s premise holds true for Trinidad, then a wide wage gap between men and women, which is held as an article of faith by gender feminists, would predict a high marriage rate, while the reverse would hold true. Table 2 breaks down the selected income ranges by sex. TABLE 2 – Sex, Marital Status, & Income Income $8000 >$15,000 Modal Average $30003,999 $4000$4,999 Single Women 2% 12% 2% Single Women 10% Married Women 4% 18% 3% Married Women 9% Single Men 1% 12% 2% Married Men 0.5% 27% 7% Single Men Married Men 14% 12% Source: CSO, 2016 The data show that there is a virtually no wage gap between single men and single women, nor do women pay a “marriage penalty” in income for getting married. Data from the CSO not included in Table 2 show that there are more married women than single women at the following income levels: less than $500, $1500-$1999, and above $9000-10,999. There is parity at $7000-$7,999. The inference here is that women at the lowest and highest income levels are more likely to the married but, in the former case, only because married women are less likely to work since marriage is less common among the lower SES group. Married men do out-earn married women at the higher income ranges, but, as Becker notes, “Since married women do work much less than single women and married men work more than single men, an increase in the wage rate of women relative to men would decrease the incentive to marry” (1960). Hence, the prediction of a low marriage rate holds. Becker’s premise, if true, also predicts that the wage gap between Afro women and Afro men should be narrower than the gap between Indo women and Indo men. (Since assortative mating by race is by far the dominant pattern, mixed marriages can be ignored for the purposes of this analysis.) These data are laid out in Table 3. TABLE 3 – Marriage, Race & Salary Sex Marital Status Race Male Never married Never married Married Married Never married Married Never married Married Male Male Male Female Female Female Female Source: CSO, 2016 >$10K monthly Afro Modal Monthly Salary $4000-$4,999 Indo $4000-$4,999 3% Afro Indo Afro $5,000-$5,499 $5,000-$5,499 $4,000-$4,499 5% 10% 3% Afro Indo $3,000-3,499 $5,000-$5,499 2% 4% Indo $5000-$5,499 7% 3% Here we find that Becker’s premise does not hold. The data show that married Indo men earn same modal salary as married Indo women., while never married Indo men actually earn modal $1000 less than never married Indo women. Among African-descent Trinidadians, never married Afro men earn same modal salary as never married Afro women, but $1000 more than married Afro women. Married Afro men earn $2000 higher modal salary than married Afro women and $1,000 higher than never married Afro women. And, among the women, married and never married Indo women have same modal salary, while married Afro women earn $1000 less than never married ones.