To marry, or not to marry?

In Arkansas (one of the states with the highest marriage penalties) if a nonparent marries a parent with two children,
and they have a 50/50 split of $40,000 in combined earnings
(counting benefits, a total income of $41,892), they would
lose approximately $13,248 in annual means-tested benefits,
or 32 percent of total household income.

Importantly, these penalties can be avoided by cohabiters
who fail to disclose to authorities either that they are biological parents of the children in the household or that they
share food and utility costs.

The future of marriage is of concern not just due to nostalgia for the “good old days.” Analysts on both the left and the
right believe that, all things being equal, getting and staying
married is the most effective way to avoid poverty and the
best way to raise children. For example, research by a team
of economists from Harvard and the University of California
at Berkeley suggests the fraction of children in single-parent
families is the strongest and most robust predictor of upward
mobility – even more than minority-group affiliation.

Here is a sampling using never-married rates for
women aged 40 to 44:

Australia (from 5 percent in 1986 to 15.6 percent in
2006 );

Austria (from 8.2 percent in 1981 to 20.5 percent in
2011);

Brazil (from 9 percent in 1980 to 33.8 percent in 2010);

Denmark (from 5.7 percent in 1985 to 21.8 percent in
2011);

France (from 7.5 percent in 1985 to 27.9 percent in
2009);

Germany (6.4 percent in 1990 to 24.1 percent in 2011);

Hong Kong (from 2.7 percent in 1981 to 16.5 percent in
2006);

Japan (from 4.9 percent in 1985 to 17.4 percent in
2010);

Norway (from 6.1 percent in 1986 to 27.8 percent in
2010 ); and

The United Kingdom (from 5.6 percent in 1981 to 22

In the United States, between 1980 and 2012, the proportion of women
aged 40 to 44 who had never been married almost tripled,
rising from 4.8 percent to 13.8 percent. (It is too soon to tell
what long-term impact the nationwide legalization of same sex marriage.)

The global breadth of marriage’s decline suggests seismic
changes in social attitudes toward marriage and in the
“gains” to marrying (financial, psychic and otherwise) for
many couples. Experts point to various factors, including
more relaxed social mores about extramarital sex and the
normative acceptance of cohabitation; women’s greater
work opportunities (combined with declining male earnings
and employment); advanced contraceptive technology; and
an evolving view that marriage should be the “capstone” of
life decisions. That is, that Americans are expecting more
from marriage and hence, are less willing to compromise
on the choice of a spouse.

Read more here.