19 To Earn More, Get Married? Data show that men who are married, and also divorced or widowed men, earn quite a bit more than men the same age who have never been married. This does not mean that a man can raise his income by getting married because men who have never been married are dif- ferent from married men in many ways other than marital status. Suggest sev- eral lurking variables that might help explain the association between marital status and income.