Does type of conjugal union matter in the labor market? Evidence from a Caribbean economy

Prior research for Caribbean economies has a labor market premium associate d with marriage for both men and women. This article investigates how the T rinidad & Tobago labor market rewards individuals who are legally married, in comparison with those in non-legal or common-law unions. The findings re veal that about one-half of the difference in the earnings of men who were legally married and those in common-law unions was due to the former's poss ession of characteristics valued by the labor market. For women, this propo rtion was around 88 percent. In respect of earnings differentials between m en and women in both types of unions, these remained wholly unexplained by the mean levels of measured characteristics included in the analysis.