The Primary Breadwinner Is Disappearing From More Homes

Nearly a third of marriages today have no primary breadwinner, as women continue to make strides toward greater equality at work and home.

About 30% of U.S. opposite-sex marriages are egalitarian in earnings, according to new data from Pew Research Center, meaning each spouse earns somewhere between 40% and 60% of the couples’ joint earnings. One of the main drivers of the shift is younger women making more money, said Pew.

The share of women earning more than their husbands has more than tripled from 5% to 16% over the last 50 years. In 1972, 49% of husbands were the sole breadwinner, meaning the husband had positive earnings and the wife had no earnings. By 2022, that share had dropped to 23% of opposite-sex marriages.

But the larger financial contributions by women don’t mean that relationships are more equal or women are better off in every realm of life, said Richard Fry, senior researcher at Pew Research Center.

Even when women earn as much as their husbands, they still put in around two more hours a week on caregiving than their husbands do, plus another 2.5 hours more on housework, according to Pew. In those same relationships, men spend nearly 3.5 more hours on leisure activities, such as watching television or playing video games, than their wives do.

Women’s economic role in marriages continues to rise despite a persistent gender pay gap and declining labor-force participation, Mr. Fry said. “In spite of some trends that would suggest to me that women’s economic role would not be growing, what we found was ‘No, it still is,’” he said.

Financial advisers and researchers say the changing money dynamic can cause marital strife, or in some cases, divorce.

Changes in breadwinner status “can lead to a lot of frustrations and arguments and resentment,” said Stacy Francis, president and chief executive of wealth-management firm Francis Financial and founder of a financial-education nonprofit.

When Ms. Francis, who often works with breadwinning women, surpassed her husband in earnings, she said the pair celebrated. After years of bearing the burden of bringing home most of the bacon, her husband was somewhat relieved to turn the job over to her, she said.

But Ms. Francis, now 48, soon found herself spending more time in the kitchen, throwing herself into the local parent-teacher association and planning her son’s prom—all, she said, in an effort to somehow compensate for other work and time spent away.

“It made me feel less feminine to earn more than my husband,” she said. “I realised, looking back, that I myself had to get comfortable with that role.”

Men remain the breadwinner in most marriages, meaning they earn more than 60% of the total earnings, Pew found.

The marriages with the highest total income are those in which both spouses are bringing in money. Marriages in which women are the primary breadwinners earn more than those in which men hold the same role: $145,000 in median income compared with $121,000 for marriages overall, according to the Pew data. A primary breadwinner in Pew’s research occurs when one spouse earns more than 60% of the household earnings.

Sole-breadwinner couples, or marriages in which one spouse has earnings and the other has none, make significantly less, with median incomes of around $75,000. Such couples also are more likely to be below the poverty line.

When women are the sole breadwinners, men spend more time on caregiving and a more equal amount of housework, compared with egalitarian marriages. But women still spend roughly the same amount of time on caregiving and household work, regardless of whether they are in egalitarian marriages or are sole or primary breadwinners, Pew found. Women without children are more likely to be the primary breadwinner than those with children.

Spouses within same-sex couples, however, tend to split the domestic labor more equally than their heterosexual counterparts, research shows.

Some researchers say one reason for the housework divide is that most of these gender roles have been built up over generations. There is a fear from some women that stopping this work could risk their marriage.

“We still see that there are remnants and large cultural issues associated with the sensitivity of women’s economic success, as a thing that destroys relationships,” said Johanna Rickne, professor of economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University.

Both husbands and wives can work to address these imbalances, said Jennifer Clark, a 34-year-old digital marketer based outside Chicago.

While her husband, a director of an audio-production company, has earned more than Ms. Clark for much of their 10-year marriage, she sets the monthly budget and manages household finances.

“It doesn’t feel like he has a larger share of the finances even though he is earning that money,” she said.

Throughout their marriage, Ms. Clark worked in freelance and part-time roles while her husband had full-time jobs. During those periods, she said, she bore a greater share of the household and caregiving responsibilities for their two children. But talking about their finances and making decisions together helped them remain equal partners.

“I would say I’ve always had a pretty good sense of financial autonomy, even with money I didn’t necessarily earn, because we make those decisions collaboratively,” she said.

Reporting season has once again reminded investors that a strong profit does not guarantee a rising share price, and a large loss does not always trigger a sell-off. What matters most is how each result compares with expectations and, increasingly, what management says about the year ahead. During the August 2026 season, companies offering credible turnarounds or unexpectedly strong guidance were rewarded handsomely, while those flagging weaker margins, slowing demand or greater uncertainty were punished.

The following ranking draws on Morningstar’s review of 164 ASX-listed companies and measures each company’s share-price movement on the day it reported. This captures the market’s immediate response to the earnings announcement, before subsequent economic developments, dividends and company-specific news cloud the picture. Here are the five biggest winners, and the five hardest-hit losers, of the season so far.

The five winners

1. Bapcor (ASX:BAP): +41.0%

Bapcor delivered reporting season’s largest relief rally after presenting early evidence that its troubled automotive-parts business was stabilising. Although underlying revenue fell 1.8% to $1.92 billion and underlying NPAT collapsed 85% to $10.8 million, underlying EBITDA of $152.5 million exceeded guidance.

More importantly, working-capital initiatives released $68.5 million in the second half, lifting cash conversion to 109.4% and reducing net debt by 63% to $135 million. The statutory loss was $431.6 million, largely because of non-cash impairments. Investors focused on improving operational momentum, stronger liquidity and management’s expectation of modest FY27 revenue growth.

2. Zip Co (ASX:ZIP): +18.2%

Zip comfortably surpassed its FY26 targets, sending the buy-now-pay-later provider’s shares sharply higher. Transaction volume rose 23% to $16.7 billion, while cash earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation jumped 58% to a record $268.9 million. Statutory profit climbed 46% to $116.4 million, and the cash operating margin expanded by 4.2 percentage points to 20%.

The strongest signal was guidance for FY27 cash earnings of $340 million—around 26% growth and above analysts’ forecasts. US transaction volume increased 42.5% and now represents three-quarters of group volume, offsetting weaker customer activity in Australia.

3. CSL (ASX:CSL): +17.3%

CSL’s result was hardly spectacular in isolation, but it cleared a market bar that had fallen dramatically following earlier downgrades and restructuring announcements. Underlying NPATA was US$3.1 billion, down 2% in constant-currency terms, while operating cash flow reached US$3.51 billion.

CSL maintained its full-year dividend at US$2.92 per share and completed a A$1 billion buyback. The real catalyst was FY27 guidance for approximately 5% underlying profit growth, compared with market expectations closer to 2%. After an extended period of earnings disappointments, investors interpreted the outlook as evidence that CSL’s core plasma business was approaching a sustainable recovery.

4. Judo Capital (ASX:JDO): +16.9%

Judo Capital demonstrated strong operating leverage as its specialist business-lending franchise expanded. Full-year profit before tax rose 34% to $168.1 million, while pre-provision profit increased 42%. Gross loans and advances grew 18% to $14.7 billion, reaching the top of the bank’s guidance range and comfortably exceeding broader system growth.

Deposits increased 24% to $12.2 billion, return on equity improved by 1.1 percentage points to 6.4%, and earnings per share rose 29% to 9.9 cents. Reaffirmation of the FY27 outlook gave investors confidence that loan growth could continue without sacrificing margins or credit quality.

5. Super Retail Group (ASX:SUL): +15.8%

The owner of Supercheap Auto, rebel, BCF and Macpac reported record sales of $4.2 billion, up 3.2%, despite cautious discretionary spending. Profitability went backwards: normalised profit before tax fell 7% to $306 million and normalised NPAT declined 2.8% to $226 million as transformation spending weighed on margins. Nevertheless, the result exceeded subdued expectations, online sales grew 5.3% and membership across the group’s loyalty programs reached 13.1 million. Investors were also encouraged by positive early FY27 trading, stable gross margins and continued market-share gains. A fully franked 33-cent final dividend added to the appeal.

The five losers

1. Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN): –21.2%

Hansen’s historic result met expectations, but investors recoiled from its outlook. The utility and communications software provider achieved an underlying EBITDA margin of 31%, exceeding its 30% target, while generating strong cash flow. However, management designated FY27 an “investment and transition year”, signalling a roughly five-percentage-point margin contraction as spending on products, sales capabilities and organisational changes increased.

Revenue had already been broadly flat, leaving investors concerned that the investment program would depress earnings before new growth appeared. Leadership changes, including the chief executive’s departure, added uncertainty. Management expects revenue growth and margins above 30% to return in FY28, but the market was unwilling to wait.

2. Life360 (ASX:360): –19.4%

Life360’s headline growth was impressive: quarterly revenue rose 38% to US$159 million, subscription revenue increased 31%, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 53% to US$31.1 million. Monthly active users reached 102.4 million and paying circles grew 27% to 3.2 million. The sell-off reflected expectations rather than a collapsing business.

Net income fell 18%, the net margin contracted from 6% to 3%, hardware shipments dropped 18%, and full-year EBITDA guidance was merely maintained. After a strong valuation run, investors wanted a larger upgrade and clearer evidence that heavy investment in advertising, international expansion and artificial intelligence would generate additional earnings.

3. PEXA Group (ASX:PXA): –17.0%

PEXA reported a 7% increase in continuing-operations revenue and 12% EBITDA growth to $152 million, accompanied by a two-percentage-point margin expansion. Free cash flow increased 39%, suggesting the core Australian electronic-conveyancing platform remained highly profitable. Investors instead concentrated on management’s warning that property-transfer volumes could decline, alongside regulatory uncertainty surrounding the fees PEXA can charge.

The company is also continuing to invest heavily in its loss-making international expansion. Morningstar considered the market reaction excessive, arguing that structural transfer-volume assumptions had not materially changed, but the combination of softer near-term activity and regulatory risk overwhelmed the respectable headline numbers.

4. SEEK (ASX:SEK): –14.3%

SEEK produced solid FY26 figures, including 10% revenue growth to $1.20 billion, a 15% rise in EBITDA and 28% growth in adjusted earnings per share. It also lifted its fully franked annual dividend by 13% to a record 52 cents. Those achievements were overshadowed by falling paid job-ad volumes and cautious FY27 assumptions.

The statutory accounts included a $201 million loss from the SEEK Growth Fund and $377 million of significant items, making the headline result considerably less attractive. Investors were particularly concerned that economic weakness could limit volumes while the company continued investing in platform integration and artificial-intelligence products.

5. JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH): –12.3%

JB Hi-Fi’s full-year result was broadly respectable, with group sales rising 5% to $11.1 billion and underlying earnings per share increasing 6% to $4.48. The damage came from its current-trading update. Australian sales were almost flat during the June quarter and deteriorated further in July, while earnings in the core Australian electronics business fell 3.6%.

Housing-related categories were particularly weak as higher living costs and interest rates constrained household budgets. With JB Hi-Fi entering the season on a demanding valuation, an in-line historic result was not sufficient: the loss of sales momentum prompted investors to rapidly reduce their expectations for FY27.

Overall, the season showed that share prices react less to whether profits rose or fell than to the gap between results and expectations. Bapcor was rewarded for being less troubled than feared, while several fundamentally profitable companies were punished because their outlooks failed to justify elevated valuations.