Women Earn the Big Money in Wealthy Families, and Decide How It's Spent

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Mar 18, 2013) - The independent and objective New York-based Luxury Institute surveyed wealthy women from U.S. households earning at least $150,000 a year about their economic situation, personal aspirations, family responsibilities and companies and industries successfully marketing to them.

Wealthy women are economic engines within their families, with 67% employed or running their own businesses; 41% report earning more than half of their family's total income, up sharply from 27% who were bigger breadwinners in 2008. Women have been earning college degrees at higher rates than men since 1985, and educational attainment has produced economic muscle: median salary of the working women surveyed is $181,000; 66% earn more than $150,000, and 20% have annual incomes of $300,000 or more.

"Luxury executives should know that given the trends we see now, we predict that the Millennial women will achieve parity or surpass the achievements of their male counterparts in managerial, entrepreneurial, income and net worth levels in the next 2 decades," says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza.

Despite career prowess, 90% of women 35 and older say that their most important aspect of life is family, and 34% say that their long-term career goal is to retire and enjoy more family time. Women control a majority of spending in 78% of households, with food (85%), clothing (78%), shoes (78%), and vacations (62%) also especially dominated by women.

"Shifting gender roles require brands in traditionally male dominated industries to connect with strong, successful women, but new marketing campaigns are not enough," says Pedraza. "Companies must drive engagement through channels like social media and one-to-one communication with empowered sales professionals who serve as brand ambassadors."

About Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.