--- title: Same-Sex Male Couples Outearn Straight Couples by More Than $60,000 description: New data from the U.S. Treasury Department show married men in same-sex relationships earn 36% more than men in opposite-sex marriages. authors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere has been covering the intersection of college and personal finance since 2015. She enjoys breaking down the complexities of college costs and financial aid, and she also runs Money’s Best Colleges. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2016-09-13T20:58:47.000Z' modified: '2024-05-08T04:05:42.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - average earnings - childcare expenses - Gay Couples - Gay Marriage - gender pay gap - household income - lesbian couples - pubdesk - Same-sex couples word_count: 267 canonical: https://money.com/gay-couples-outearn-others/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![160913_CAR_SameSexEarners](https://img.money.com/2016/09/160913_car_samesexearners.jpg) Men in same-sex marriages tend to earn significantly more than their lesbian or heterosexual counterparts, according to [new data released this week](https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/tax-analysis/Documents/WP-108.pdf) by the U.S. Treasury Department. Gay men had an average household income of $176,000 in 2014, $52,000 more than lesbian couples and $63,000 more than opposite-sex couples. The Treasury Department's first-ever look at tax returns for same-sex couples adds a new element to research on the ways gender and geography affect earnings. Same-sex couples, for example, tend to live on the coast and in major metropolitan areas, where average earnings tend to be higher than other parts of the country. For male couples, that geographic earnings premium helps explain why heterosexual couples earn 36% less. Lesbian couples, on the other hand, only top heterosexual couples' average income by a narrower 9.7%—and when you compare lesbian couples to heterosexual couples in the same zip code, that advantage disappears. ***Read more:** [Financial Planning for the Modern Family](https://money.com/page/modern-family-finances/)* That's in part because of the [gender pay gap](https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-excuses-wrong/), according to an [Upshot story](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/upshot/the-most-detailed-map-of-gay-marriage-in-america.html?_r=0) in the *New York Times,* which affects only one half of a couple's income in a heterosexual couple. Child care expenses also play a role. Same-sex female couples are four times more likely than same-sex male couples to have children. One group where incomes are remarkably higher than peers: same-sex married men with children report average earnings of $275,000, more than double that of same-sex female and heterosexual couples. That's probably because it's a self-selecting group. In order to become parents, male couples have to be able to afford adoptions, which can top $30,000, Upshot reports. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gay-couples-outearn-others/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Income", "item": "https://money.com/income/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Same-Sex Male Couples Outearn Straight Couples by More Than $60,000" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/gay-couples-outearn-others/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gay-couples-outearn-others/", "name": "Same-Sex Male Couples Outearn Straight Couples by More Than $60,000", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-09-13T20:58:47.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gay-couples-outearn-others/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gay-couples-outearn-others/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-08T04:05:42.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Same-Sex Male Couples Outearn Straight Couples by More Than $60,000", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/09/160913_car_samesexearners.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160913_CAR_SameSexEarners" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kaitlin Mulhere", "url": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/#author", "description": "Kaitlin Mulhere has been covering the intersection of college and personal finance since 2015. 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