" I'm old enough to still remember a time from the mid 1970s until the early eighties when a high school diploma was enough to get you a decent job, an apartment, and a used car. You could even work a fulltime minimum wage job in a store, warehouse, or service firm and live decent. For people in manufacturing, construction, or the public sector it was even better. College graduates had it made. Fulltime work took care of your basic needs and there was room for improvement. Today none of this is the case. The economy and society have changed for the worse." I wrote that in September 2022 about working people in general. But now when I think about single people it makes a lot of sense. They are struggling economically. In fact, the number of unmarried people without a partner age 25 to 54 is up from 29% in 1990 to 38% in 2019.
I'm in my mid-fifties and have been divorced for over twenty years. My children are all grown now. When they were young, I worked two jobs and paid child support. It's not easy paying rent, a car payment, insurance, or emergency expenses if you're not married or don't have a partner. For the last decade I've lived with my elderly mother. We pool our resources and make out alright. However I work with men who are divorced or never married and they struggle. The old saying is very true - It takes two. None of this implies married people or single mothers have it easy. They don't. In this economy I call Predator Capitalist it's hard on most people who aren't rich and work for someone else. But it's clear that having a spouse or partner helps.
Consider these facts.
Singles are less likely to work, have a college, and make less money than married people or those living with a partner.
73% of single men work compared to 91% of married men. For women 77% of single women work compared to 74% of partnered women.
Between 1990 and 2019 single men saw their earnings drop 4% compared to 0.9% for single women. However partnered men saw a 7% increase. Partnered women saw their earnings increase 48%.
Median income for partnered men was $ 57,000 compared to $ 35,600 for single men. For women with a partner, it was $ 40,000 compared to $ 32,000 for single women.
For the elderly things get even harder. According to the Social Security Administration while poverty among seniors is low. For those who live alone the rate is higher:
The never-married elderly (aged 65 or older) have the highest poverty rate among all groups, followed by those who are divorced and widowed. The overall elderly poverty rate is almost two-thirds higher among women than men with 12 percent of women in poverty compared with 7 percent of men. Unmarried women—including those who are widowed, divorced, and never married—are significantly more likely than unmarried men to be poor. The unmarried elderly are disproportionately poorer than the married elderly. Never-married individuals represent about 5 percent of the elderly, but 12 percent of the elderly poor. Likewise, divorced individuals make up 12 percent of the elderly and 20 percent of the elderly poor. Widowed individuals make up a quarter of the elderly, but 37 percent of the elderly poor.
While the poverty rate for non-elderly seniors (without dependents) is 9.4% there are millions of people struggling to survive close to poverty. Think about that. People who struggle to pay rent, eat healthy, and pay for healthcare.
Some will say the tax code wrongly favors people with children especially married people. Others say people need to get married stay together and have children for moral and economic reasons. Of course all of this intersects with racial and gender inequality too. There are millions of single black women never married and without children who want husbands and families. And we know that poverty is a serious problem among single parent moms regardless of race. But this shouldn't be a zero sum game that divides working people trying to make ends meet. The problems faced by single people are tied to an economy that is grossly unequal in terms of wealth and income. Employment is less stable, not adequately paid, lacking decent benefits, and uncertain because of new technologies. All working people matter. The plight of singles needs the same attention and care as working families.
Sources
The escalating costs of being single in America
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22788620/
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/population-profiles/
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