19 Sep Married for the Money… by Zachary A. Chapman

Marrying for money is one thing, but marrying because of money and staying married for the money is another. Statistics show that one’s marital status does actually have an impact on their labor income. Statistically, married men tend to earn more income than other workers, including single men. However, a new study has shown that divorced men in particular incur a lower income. An article by Guillaume Vandenbroucke, an economist and senior economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses these statistics in greater detail, but leaves one area, “The Reasons for Earnings Loss,” unclear.[1]

Earnings Loss

As an attorney who practices in Family Law, this naturally caught my attention. While  initially less obvious, the reasons for the Earnings Loss becomes clearer when comparing divorced individuals to currently married individuals. First and foremost is the simple aspect that  divorce  is quite literally draining— not only to the emotions and mental wellbeing of the folks going through it, but also to their wallets and bank accounts. A divorce can be expensive with attorneys’ fees, legal costs, and ultimately the division of assets and liabilities. At the finality of a divorce in Colorado, the Court’s will enter an Order for the Equitable Distribution of all marital property. These include savings accounts, checking accounts, stocks, bonds, other investments, 401ks, IRAs, pensions, and of course the marital residence and any other real estate that is owned of the marriage, or the growth in equity of some separate real estate properties. Just like the majority of jobs in America, the Courts are open for business 8AM-5PM, five days a week. Even the simplest of divorces can require a family to appear in Court on three separate occasions, all of which people will miss out on work for. The missed time alone can have an impact on one’s earned income, but the daily stress and chaos that a divorce can cause will undoubtedly have an effect on the quality of one’s work as well, potentially impacting future work prospects or even their job as a whole.

Divorce Aftermath

After a divorce, everything else changes too. When you were married, there was usually another support system in place to make sure  the kids were picked up from school and taken to baseball practice  while your work project was diligently continued.  Post-divorce, the work may have to be set aside while the day-to-day child care  is tended to.  The call from the school nurse or the principal now means that you must leave work to take your child home from school and get that tummy ache feeling better or get to the bottom of why your child and his once-best-friend gave each other black eyes during recess. The bottom line is that parenting is tough, but it is certainly easier when you have a partner to help. Often times following a divorce, a new routine will be set and things will improve , but while this new normal emerges,  maintaining that normalcy may be a daily battle.   With this new-found normalcy is the possibility of regaining a work-life routine, but this may come with its own daily battle as well.

Divorce and the aftermath can be very difficult and costly for all involved.  Having an attorney to help you through the process and  offer assistance with what lies ahead is crucial.  Should you find yourself contemplating  your own Family Law case, contact Kearney, McWilliams and Davis, PLLC to aid you in all the stages of your case and help you prepare for the future.

[1] Guillaume Vandenbroucke, The Effect of Divorce on Workers’ Incomes, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Feb. 5, 2024), https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2024/feb/effect-divorce-workers-incomes.

Written by Zachary A. Chapman, Senior Attorney at KMD Law