Do Social Security Dependent Benefits Reduce Labor Force Participation among Prime-Aged Married Women?†

This paper investigates the effect of Social Security dependent benefit provisions on the labor supply of married women aged 25-54. Many provisions of the Social Security program may distort an individual’s work incentive. In particular, the availability of dependent benefits may reduce the net return to work since secondary earners, who are likely to claim benefits based on their spouses’ earnings records, pay the full payroll tax without receiving marginal benefits for additional earnings. I rely on differences in Social Security coverage among husbands by state and sector to identify the impact on the labor supply of their wives. The results show that married women tend to reduce their labor supply when dependent benefits are available, suggesting that changes in the Social Security system that strengthen the relationship between earnings and benefits would have a positive effect on the labor supply of married women.