Bringing Home the Bacon: The Relationships among Breadwinner Role, Performance, and Pay

Ind Relat (Berkeley). 2019 Jan;58(1):46-85. doi: 10.1111/irel.12225. Epub 2018 Dec 2.

Abstract

We evaluate the relationships among breadwinner role, performance, and pay. Differences in pay are present despite limited differences in performance. We find a pay premium for primary-breadwinner employees across gender, yet a pay penalty for secondary-breadwinners employees only for women, suggesting an asymmetric relationship among breadwinner role, gender, and pay.