Is the 'Marriage Penalty' Crushing Today's Couples?
Government policies that penalize marriage hurt lower middle class families the most, leading many to avoid getting married, a new study released Tuesday discovered.
In an Institute for Family Studies and American Enterprise Institute joint report titled "Marriage, Penalized: Does Social-Welfare Policy Affect Family Formation?" scholars W. Bradford Wilcox, Joseph P. Price, and Angela Rachidi, examine the effects of means-tested government programs like Medicaid and food stamps on marriage rates.
Senior Fellow at IFS and lead contributor to the report Brad Wilcox told The Christian Post in an interview that their research indicates that "the welfare state is reaching higher up the income ladder than it used to."
Today, "nearly half of new families [are] receiving some kind of means-tested benefit," Wilcox said.
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Their study does not show that marriage penalties discourage marriage among the poorest families in the United States though there is "some evidence suggesting welfare might be penalizing marriage among the lower middle class," Wilcox continued.
