although taxbenefit rules are not in general explicitly genderspecific certain aspects of taxbenefit systems may be more relevant to either men or women so exacerbating the unequal distribution of paid work and earnings in many couple families for example the man is the main earner with his female partner frequently earning considerably less chapter and oecd c for the latest data on earnings broken down by gender figure compares on one hand the net transfers to government of a dualearner couple with two children where both partners earn of the average wage with on the other hand the net transfers of a singleearner couple with two children and the same household earnings