Tax Issues

Bartlett: Black And Middle-Class Couples Hit Hardest By Marriage Penalty

Congressional Republicans' highest tax priority this year will be eliminating the so-called marriage penalty -- which causes married people to pay more taxes as a couple than they would pay if both were taxed as singles. This penalty most often occurs when a husband and wife both work and earn similar incomes.

  • A majority of couples affected by the marriage penalty have a combined income of more than $50,000.

  • The highest percentage of couples hit by the marriage tax is among those in which each spouse earns between $20,000 and $30,000 per year (see figure).

  • The percentage affected tends to be small for low-income couples and declines for high-income couples.

Blacks suffer disproportionately from the marriage penalty. Among married couples, black women are more likely to work than white women and on average provide more of the couple's total income.

  • According to a 1990 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 75 percent of black women work full-time, compared to only 62 percent of white women.

  • And working black women contribute 40 percent of family earnings, while working white women contribute just 29 percent.

Source: Bruce Bartlett (senior fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis), January 5, 1998.

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