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Notes -
Anecdotally, my husband's salary doubled within two years of marrying me (after having been around the same for the five years before marrying me.) He works for a family-owned business with over 200 employees. He gets the impression that he's taken more seriously as an employee now that he has a wife and kids.
Whether we can turn anecdote into data probably depends on what you mean by 'serious.' It would be nice if it were all easily trackable by pay. But oftentimes it's simply an attitude, being brought on work lunches to meet clients, being brought into meetings, how people interact during the meeting.
You'd have to be careful about causality, I specifically worked to improve my career prospects because I got married, I was fine with kind of coasting until I had other people depending on me.
Yes, I am sure that plays a huge part in it, too. Once upon a time my husband put in his two weeks without having anything else lined up (he made it a few rounds into an interview and was feeling overconfident, and something at work made him angry.) He would be much less likely to do something like that now!
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