Federal and state laws that allow married couples to file their taxes jointly instead of separately often save married people a significant amount of money. Arnold and Campbell compare the situation of a single woman earning $80,000 to a married woman earning the same amount. They find that based on 2011 rates, the married woman would pay about $4,000 dollars less in taxes than the single woman, which they extrapolate would add up to $155,000 over 40 years. While the American public overall is split on whether it’s unfair (37%) or fair (36%) that married people sometimes pay less taxes, a majority of unmarried women say it is unfair, compared to only 21% who say it is fair. Four in 10 unmarried men, three in 10 married women, and two in 10 married men say it is unfair.

Employment benefits, such as Social Security and health insurance, also tend to benefit the married over the unmarried. Upon retirement, the federal government offers married people a dual claim option, allowing them to claim Social Security both as a spouse and then later as a worker. When a married person dies, their Social Security benefits go to their spouse or children, but when a single person without children dies, their benefits go back into the system. In the United States, one way that people frequently access health insurance is through their spouse’s employer, an option that is not usually available to unmarried people. When asked about differences in access to Social Security and health insurance in our survey, 38% of Americans said these disparities were unfair, compared to 36% who said they were fair. Nearly half of women who are not married say these policies are unfair to single people; married people, on the other hand, are more likely to say these policies are fair than unfair.