Do Two Paychecks Matter?
In 1970, about two-thirds of married couples had a spouse at home (usually the wife). But today, only 40 percent of families have a stay-at-home spouse to handle domestic demands during the workday. Couples now work a combined average of 63 hours a week, up from just 52.5 in 1970, according to a 2009 report on workplace flexibility from the Georgetown University Law Center…
When both husband and wife work outside the home, the woman spends about 28 hours a week on housework. Her husband can claim only about 16 hours, according to the National Survey of Families and Households from the University of Wisconsin. And men and women themselves paint very different pictures of their domestic duties. In the 2008 Families and Work report, 49 percent of men said they provided most or an equal amount of child care. But only 31 percent of women gave their husbands that much credit. The perception gap continued for cooking and housecleaning — more than 50 percent of men say they do most or half the work; 70 percent of wives say they do all of it.
Full article by Tara Parker-Pope on the new dynamics of balancing work and family life.
It’s probably fair to say that both partners tend to under-estimate the other partner’s contributions. This probably is made worse by different expectations about home cleanliness, whether mowing grass in the heat is the same as vacuuming an air conditioned living room and whether driving kids to soccer practice is a chore or an adventure.
Of course two paychecks matter. That means the wife has two full time jobs.
It’s amazing how perceptions differ. Each thinks he/she is doing more than the partner thinks they are doing.
I sort of like the idea of the wife having two full time jobs.
Married couples with one person working have higher incomes. Question is whether having everyone stressed limits job growth or whether one person quits when the other makes enough money.
If one person is in a high tax bracket, it makes sense for the other to stay home. Instant meals, dining out, hired domestic help and sitters are generally paid for with after-tax dollars. This effectively doubles the price of these services for high-bracket couples.
Linda:
Your statistic sounds too good to be true.
Can you back it up?
The number of 2 wage earner couples, coupled with 2 kids, is an interesting comparison to the one income married family and 4 kids of 30 years ago.
Even with more double earner families with half the kids, household median income has not risen (due to inflation) for over 35 years.
Don Levit
I’m shocked that more people don’t have flexible work schedules. I don’t understand why American culture is so wed to the 40 hour “full-time” (with the extra 10-20 hours “because I’m climbing the ladder”).
I suspect that part of it has to do with laws related to benefits (specifically health insurance) and overtime. But, overall, most professionals that I know would trade $20k or more in salary just to have some more down time. But, if they speak up (man or woman), they risk losing credibility.
Also, there’s this assumption that to work in a challenging office, you have to be at the office for 60+ hours a week. I would make the case that only a select group can do that. The rest of us mere mortals need time to recharge.
Virginia, don’t you know? Federal law prevents flex time. At lease it won’t allow hourly workers to borrow time from one work period and shift it to another. The exception is for federal workers. They enjoy the very flex time they deny to everyone else.
Don,
What I wrote was incorrect. I should have said that married men whose wives do not work have higher incomes than married men whose wives work.
Its abstract says: “It is found that, among men in Managerial and Other Manual occupations, having a working wife significantly reduces the husband’s hourly wage rate. The findings are robust to various estimation techniques and imply for these cases that productivity or discrimination effects associated with a wife working 40 hours per week lead to a reduction in the husband’s hourly earnings of around 15 per cent.”
Tom, I did not know that. Thanks for the tip.
Linda:
Thanks for making that clear.
Don Levit
I bet it’s also true that married women with stay at home husbands earn more than women whose husbands work.