Barefoot and pregnant, and in the money

Married men earn more than bachelors so long as their wives stay at home doing the housework, according to a report from Britain's Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Academics Elena Bardasi and Mark Taylor found that a married man whose wife did not go out to work but was primarily responsible for the cooking and cleaning earned about 3 per cent more than comparably employed single men.

But that wage premium disappeared if wives went out to work or didn't do most of the housework.

"It has been fairly well documented that married men earn more than single men," Taylor, a labour economist at the University of Essex said. "However, our research established the wage premium is related to the wife doing the chores."