Single U.S. adults told researchers they want potential partners earning at least six figures — provided the number is 'realistic.' Respondents who said a partner's income matters to them put the acceptable average at $139,000 a year, according to a new study from Northwestern Mutual, conducted by the Harris Poll.
The expectation varies sharply by generation. Millennials, ages 30 to 45, had the highest income expectations of any group, at $160,000. Gen Zers — currently between 14 and 29, though the survey polled adults 18 and up — named $135,000 as ideal. Gen X, ages 41 to 64, said $123,000, while boomers, 65 and older, said $125,000.
The numbers come first, and they tell an uncomfortable story next to real paychecks. Data from the St. Louis Fed, analyzed by Investopedia, show median annual earnings of $72,020 for Americans ages 35 to 44, and $71,604 for those 45 to 54. Workers 65 and older earned a median in the $60,000s, and those 25 to 34 earned $59,800.
Expectations also split by gender. Men said they'd ideally like a partner earning $101,000, while women set that bar at $172,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that as of the second quarter of 2026, median usual weekly earnings for full-time wage and salaried men stood at $1,380, versus $1,131 for women. Among workers 25 and older, men's median weekly earnings were $1,459 and women's were $1,171 in that same quarter.
Pew Research wrote last year that the gender pay gap has closed only fractionally over two decades: women earned an average of 85% of men's earnings in 2024, up from 81% in 2003.
There is a caveat to all this income math: 59% of singles said a partner's earnings aren't important to them at all. Younger generations, meanwhile, are talking money earlier — 11% of millennials and 10% of Gen Z raise finances within the first days or weeks of dating, compared with 6% of Gen X and boomers. Only 6% of millennials wait until marriage or cohabitation to have that conversation, versus 15% of boomers.
The same study found financial strain reshaping life milestones: 31% of Gen Z and 24% of millennials cited money as an obstacle to buying a house, while 24% of Gen Z and 14% of millennials said finances may delay or prevent them from having children.
The gap between the wish list and the paycheck is not a mystery of the heart — it is a market signal. When median earnings sit tens of thousands of dollars below what singles call 'realistic,' the problem is not romantic ambition; it is a cost-of-living and productivity story that no dating survey can paper over.
Capital rewards clear rules, not wishful thinking. Until wages and household formation catch up with the price of a stable life — housing, childcare, taxes — young Americans will keep pricing partnership the way they price everything else in a strained economy: cautiously, and with the numbers first.
