Dr. Phyllis G. Kitzerow, professor of sociology at Westminster College, recently presented a paper at the "Rethinking Gender, Work and Organization Conference," an international conference held at Keele University in England.

Kitzerow and Dr. Peter A. Groothuis, an associate professor of economics at Westminster College, co-authored "The Marriage Premium and Assortative Mating: A Theory of Labor Augmentation."

"We looked at the literature on the wage gap between men and women and found that another wage gap exists as well - that between married and single men," said Kitzerow. "We combined that finding with the literature on assortative mating on who marries whom, and found that people tend to marry people very much like themselves in terms of education and occupation.

"When we compared married men's salaries, we found that the differences in these salaries were very related to the wife's educational and occupational levels," continued Kitzerow. "This led us to a theory of intellectual augmentation."

The study indicates that intellectual labor augmentation suggests that individuals will search for spouses who have similar characteristics to maximize joint production. Intellectual labor augmentation also suggests that similar spouses create a wage premium that reflects the synergies of marriage.

Kitzerow and Groothius plan further exploration of national databanks and study of professional couples.

Kitzerow, who has been with Westminster College since 1978, earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, and her master's and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Groothuis, who has been with Westminster College since 1989, earned his undergraduate degree from Central Michigan University, and his master's and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.

For more information, contact Kitzerow at (724) 946-7252 or e-mail kitzerpg@westminster.edu.