is out earning her husband. if the man is the primary earner then a certain number of wives would be stay at home. so that s depressing the median earnings in those house holds where the man is the primary earner. we should be sure to not cloud over the fact this does not change the fact that there are still great income disparities when it comes to men and women in the same jobs. correct. what you have is women who are primary earners in their households but not making as much as a man might in the work place. so you have women supporting households on less than a man might make. there used to be and still is to a certain extent a premium for husbands and a premium for fathers. you know, the husband premium shall the marriage premium for men. they would be, you know, earlier in the 20th century men would be paid more just because they were married just because they were fathers and husbands. women have traditionally been paid supplementary wages and the work place hasn t quite wok