Benefits of Marriage

Besides love and companionship, there are many benefits to marriage, especially in the eyes of the law. In fact, there are 1,138 federal benefits, rights and responsibilities associated with marriage [ref]. In this section, we’ll list some of those benefits.

Spouses have or are entitled to:

Watch for Broken Glass! At the end of the ceremony in a Jewish wedding, the groom breaks a glass (for safety considerations, sometimes a light bulb is used). This gesture symbolizes the destruction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and represents the couple’s identification with Jewish history and tradition. Some also joke that this is the last time that the groom will be able to put his foot down.

• visitation rights and can make medical decisions, unless otherwise specified in a living will
• benefits for federal employees -- many of which are also offered by private employers -- such as sick leave, bereavement leave, days off for the birth of a child, pension and retirement benefits, family health insurance plans
• some property and inheritance rights, even in the absence of a will
• the ability to create life insurance trusts
• tax benefits, such as being able to give tax free gifts to a spouse and to file joint tax returns
• the ability to receive Medicare, Social Security, disability and veteran’s benefits for a spouse
• discount or family rates for auto, health and homeowners insurance
• immigration and residency benefits, making it easier to bring a spouse to the U.S. from abroad
• visiting rights in jail

Social scientists have also found many positive benefits for married couples and families, including fewer incidents of poverty and mental health problems in families where the parents are married rather than simply cohabitating. Many studies also support the idea that children living with married parents do better in a variety of ways than children in any other living arrangement [ref].

Marriage by the Numbers The demographics of marriage have changed dramatically in the last half-century, with the median age for a first marriage increasing since the 1950s. Divorce and remarriage rates have also increased over the last 50 years. Of people born from 1935 to 1939, 21 percent of men and 51 percent of women were married by age 20. Of people born from 1975 to 1979, 8 percent of men and 18 percent of women were married by age 20. In 2003, the median marriage age was 27 years old for men and 25 years old for women [ref]. Clearly, young people are choosing to wait longer than their parents before taking the plunge into marriage.