Apparently yes, at least for a while.
That's the surprising result from a study in Finland, a country where they know an awful lot about what people are doing. To be more specific, the study Romantic Relationships with Your Boss looked at who was cohabitating with whom and where they worked, something that the authors learned by combining different data sets and matching the information. They know an awful lot about you in Finland. The authors focus on women and men who are living and working in the same organization where the man is a manager and the woman is not. Yes, the study can't say what they are actually doing when cohabitating, and it is possible that some of them were just roommates. But let's not be picky, this is still super interesting.
How big is this phenomenon? Nine percent of male managers who are cohabitating are doing so with someone from work.
OK, let's get to the good stuff. The authors estimate that when the colleagues are dating, they find that the females' earnings grow about 22% over the first year of dating as compared to 16% for women in similar roles who are not dating a manager in their organization. So a six percentage-point boost for the boss group. Once they move in, the increase in earnings slows, but it does for those not cohabitating with a superior as well.
But here's the bad news: If there is a breakup, defined as the pair no longer living together, their earnings take a big hit—about 12%—that lasts for about four years. Those who are cohabitating but not with their boss don't take that hit if they break up.
How about for men? What if they cohabitate with a female boss from their employer? They get an even bigger pay bump. But if they break up, they also take an even bigger cut than women do.
The obvious question is: Why? The post-break-up downside seems driven by the fact that after, the subordinates often leave their job, so they earn less at the new employer, and some even go to unemployment, where earnings fall to zero. In other words, they are probably in a rush to get out and suffer because of that. But why is there a bump up when the relationship gets started? Is it favoritism? Maybe they just learn from their manager/partner how to get ahead? But that's the big question.
Are we so different in the U.S.? My co-host employment lawyer Dan O'Meara used to offer this advice to listeners on our radio show when they asked about dating at work: Don’t. Just don’t. Looks as though a lot of people aren't listening because at least one study claims that 18% of U.S. workers have dated a boss at work (someone superior to them in the organizational hierarchy).
In the U.S., we have gone back-and-forth about dating co-workers but have been reasonably clear that it is a bad idea to date subordinates. This study does not say what happens to the managers in this context. We have tended to see them as more likely to suffer if a relationship goes bad because of legal consequences, and maybe they do in Finland as well. The fact that the subordinates suffer is the news here. It would not surprise me if subordinates also took a hit. Maybe Dan is right: Just don’t.
Peter CappelliGeorge W. Taylor Professor of ManagementDirector - Center for Human Resources for the The Wharton School