Markets in a Minute

Female Breadwinners Have Doubled, But Barriers Remain

Published

5 years ago

March 4, 2020

Dorothy Neufeld

This Markets in a Minute chart is available as a poster.

female breadwinners

This Markets in a Minute chart is available as a poster.

The Rise of Female Breadwinners

Who is the higher income earner in your family?

Over time, the U.S. has seen a rise in female breadwinners. In fact, the proportion of women who earn more than their male partners has almost doubled since 1981.

Today’s Markets in a Minute chart–from New York Life Investments–illustrates the historical trajectory of women’s earning power, as well as systemic challenges women still face.

Then and Now: Gaining Ground

In the last 40 years, there has been considerable progress in both the percentage and number of female breadwinners.

	1981	1991	2001	2011	2018
% Female Breadwinners	16%	21%	24%	28%	29%
# Female Breadwinners	4.1M	6.5M	8.1M	8.8M	9.6M

For families that had dual incomes, only 16% of households in 1981 had a female breadwinner. This was equal to about 4 million women across the country at the time.

Fast-forward to the present, and close to 10 million married, female breadwinners were part of the U.S. labor pool in 2018.

Breakthroughs Could Link to Education

Higher education rates and rising earning power are helping to decouple women from pre-existing financial stereotypes.

For married female breadwinners*, the impact of education often plays out as follows:

Education level	% of Women Earning Equal or More Than Partner
More education than partner	49%
Same education as partner	29%
Less education than partner	20%

Source: Pew Research Center
*Over age 25

The odds of a woman earning the same or more than her partner skyrockets nearly 250% if she has more education, compared to if she has less education.

Interestingly, when it comes to career trajectories, women and men share similar decision-making rationales. Among surveyed women, 83% were more likely to delay having kids in order to advance their careers, compared to 79% of men. The primary reason: to help secure a stronger financial standing for their future children.

While it is clear that women have become a growing financial force over time, they still face many persistent challenges today.

A Chorus of Systemic Barriers

Women experience a litany of headwinds, both overt and subtle. What are some variables that continue to have a pervasive impact on women’s finances?

Media Bias
According to one study, 65% of media language directed towards women and their finances surrounded “excessive spending”. In contrast, 70% of language towards men discussed “making money” as a masculine ideal.

Financial Well-being
According to a global survey, 85% of women manage day-to-day expenses as much as or more than their spouse. However, 58% of women defer long-term financial and investment decisions to their husbands.

Gender Wage Gap
Based on the median salary for all men and women, women earn 79 cents for every dollar men make in 2019. The gap starts small and continues to grow as people age. How can women close the gap? The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce has some advice:

Get one more degree
Pick a high-paying college major, such as the STEM fields
Negotiate starting pay

If current earning trends continue, women will not receive equal pay until 2059.

Leadership Roles
While more women are in the workforce compared to previous generations, they tend to be in lower positions.

Women in S&P 500 Companies

Role	Women's Representation in Role
CEOs	5.8%
Top Earners	11.0%
Board Seats	21.2%
Executive/Senior-Level Officials and Managers	26.5%
First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers	36.9%
Total Employees	44.7%

Why are there so few women CEOs? Men dominate management roles that influence the company’s bottom line, such as COO or sales. On the other hand, female executives typically fill roles in areas like human resources or legal—which rarely lead to a CEO appointment.

The Road Ahead

The last 40 years have shown immense progress, yet there is still plenty of room for further advancement.

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made… It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

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Markets in a Minute

The Average American’s Financial Portfolio by Account Type

From retirement plans to bank accounts, we show the percentage of an American’s financial portfolio that is typically held in each account.

Published

10 months ago

September 11, 2024

Jenna Ross

The Average American’s Financial Portfolio by Account Type

Where does the average American put their money? From retirement plans to banks, the typical financial portfolio includes a variety of accounts.

In this graphic from Morningstar, we explore what percentage of a person’s money is typically held within each account.

Breaking Down a Typical Financial Portfolio

People put the most money in employer retirement plans, which make up nearly two-fifths of the average financial portfolio. Bank accounts, which include checking, savings, and CDs, hold the second-largest percentage of people’s money.

Account Type	% of Financial Portfolio
Employer retirement plan	38%
Bank account	23%
Brokerage/investment account	14%
Traditional IRA	10%
Roth IRA	7%
Crypto wallet/account	4%
Education savings account	3%
Other	1%

Source: Morningstar Voice of the Investor Report 2024, based on 1,261 U.S. respondents.

Outside of employer retirement plans and bank accounts, the average American keeps nearly 40% of their money in accounts that advisors typically help manage. For instance, people also hold a large portion of their assets in investment accounts and IRAs.

Account Insight for Advisors

Given the large focus on retirement accounts in financial portfolios, advisors can clearly communicate how they will help investors achieve their retirement goals. Notably, Americans say that funding retirement accounts is a top financial goal in the next three years (39% of people), second only to reducing debt (40%).

Americans also say that building an emergency fund is one of their financial goals (35%), which can be supported by the money they hold in bank accounts. However, it can be helpful for advisors to educate clients on the lower return potential of savings accounts and CDs. In comparison, advisors can highlight that investment or retirement accounts can hold assets with more potential for building wealth, like mutual funds or ETFs. With this knowledge in mind, clients will be better able to balance short-term and long-term financial goals.

The survey results also highlight the importance of advisors staying up to date on emerging trends and products. People hold 4% of their money in crypto accounts on average, and nearly a quarter of people said they hold crypto assets like bitcoin. Advisors who educate themselves on these assets can more effectively answer investors’ questions.

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Markets in a Minute

5 Factors Linked to Higher Investor Engagement

Engaged investors review their goals often and are more involved in decisions, but which factors are tied to higher investor engagement?

Published

10 months ago

August 22, 2024

Jenna Ross

Partial bar chart showing the factors linked to higher investor engagement along with a picture of a man looking at a cell phone.

5 Factors Linked to Higher Investor Engagement

Imagine two investors. One investor reviews their investment goals every quarter and actively makes decisions. The second investor hasn’t reviewed their goals in over a year and doesn’t take part in any investment decisions. Are there traits that the first, more involved investor would be more likely to have?

In this graphic from Morningstar, we explore five factors that are associated with high investor engagement.

Influences on Investor Engagement

Morningstar scores their Investor Engagement Index from a low of zero to a high of 100, which indicates full engagement. In their survey, they discovered five traits that are tied to higher average engagement levels among investors.

Factor	Investor Engagement Index Score (Max = 100)
Financial advisor relationship	Don’t work with financial advisor: 63
	Work with financial advisor: 70
Sustainability alignment	No actions/alignment: 63
	Some/full alignment: 74
Trust in AI	Low trust: 61
	High trust: 74
Risk tolerance	Conservative: 62
	Aggressive: 76
Comfort making investment decisions	Low comfort: 42
	High comfort: 76

Morningstar’s Investor Engagement Index is equally weighted based on retail investors’ responses to seven questions: feeling informed about composition and performance of investments, frequency of investment portfolio review, involvement in investment decision-making, understanding of investment concepts and financial markets, frequency of goals review, clarity of investment strategy aligning to long-term goals, and frequency of engagement in financial education activities.

On average, people who work with financial advisors, have sustainability alignment, trust AI, and have a high risk tolerance are more engaged.

The starkest contrast was that people with high comfort making investment decisions have engagement levels that are nearly two times higher than those with low comfort. In fact, people with a high comfort level were significantly more likely to say they were knowledgeable about the composition and performance of their investments (84%) vs. those with low comfort (18%).

Personalizing Experiences Based on Engagement

Advisors can consider adjusting their approach depending on an investor’s engagement level. For example, if a client has an aggressive risk tolerance this may indicate the client is more engaged. Based on this, the advisor could check if the client would prefer more frequent portfolio reviews.

On the other hand, soft skills can play a key role for those who are less engaged. People with low comfort making investment decisions indicated that the top ways their financial advisor provides value is through optimizing for growth and risk management (62%), making them feel more secure about their financial future (38%), and offering peace of mind and relief from the stress of money management (30%).