Who controls the money in your household?

News stories last week jumped on the Pew Research Center poll released Sept. 25, showing that women are making more and more major decisions at home. Most of the stories I saw focused on the all-important question of who has control over the television remote, so I decided to dig in to the poll itself. And I found an interesting tidbit hidden among the stats:

According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of respondents said that the woman makes the decisions in more of four key areas — household finances,
weekend activities, big purchases for the home, and who controls the TV remote —
than men. The guys have the upper hand in about 26 percent of all couples, and 31 percent said that they split decision-making responsibilities — even though that answer wasn’t one of the options given in the poll. ... But here’s the real news, buried in the poll results: In dual-income couples, it is the woman who has more say, regardless of whether she earns more or less than her partner.

So, while money doesn’t necessarily equal power in most American households, working does. ... [More]

So, who controls the money in your household?