“Between 2000 and 2015, the share of married couples where the wife earned at least $30,000 more than the husband increased from 6 to 9 percent, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Married couples where the husband earned at least $30,000 more than the wife decreased from 38 to 35 percent. Conversely, husbands and wives whose earnings were within $4,999 of each other grew slightly from 24 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2015. “This is a noteworthy development, given a broader context of an enduring gender earnings gap,” said Jamie Lewis, a statistician in the Fertility and Family Statistics Branch, referencing page 10 of the 2014 Income and Poverty in the United States report. The statistics released today come from the Census Bureau’s annual Families and Living Arrangements table package from the 2015 Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement, which has collected statistics on families and living arrangements for more than 60 years. These data measure income earned in 1999 and 2014, and income is in 2014 dollars. The comparisons provide an overview of all married couples and do not account for employment status. Today’s table package delves into many other characteristics of households, including similarities and differences between married and unmarried couples. The historical data on America’s families and living arrangements can be found on census.gov.”