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Tuesday, Sep. 1, 1998
Working moms boost household income
25 percent increase would be only 1.5 percent without mothers' pay
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated PressWASHINGTON - Married couples with children saw their incomes rise by more than 25 percent since 1969, due largely to working moms.
If the women's income is not counted, the 25.3 percent increase is just 1.5 percent, according to a wide-ranging Census Bureau analysis that compared constant dollars from 1969 to 1996.
The Census statisticians sought to determine why median household income rose a very modest 6.3 percent - from $33,072 to $35,172 - while per capita income leaped 51 percent - from $11,975 to $18,136.
Their conclusion: Households went through some major changes during the period.
In addition to an increase in single-person households, among the major changes was the increase in the proportion of wives working full-time, year-round. That climbed from 17 percent to 39 percent in households with children.
Married-couple households with no children and working wives increased from 42 percent to 60 percent when a householder was under 40 years old, and from 31 percent to 46 percent when a householder was 40 to 64 years old.
Looking at such households' earnings, married-couple households without children also had substantial gains in median income between 1969 and 1996. Again, the increased importance of the income of the wife was very evident, the report noted.
Among such households with a householder under 65 years old, median income increased by 34 percent over the period, but only by about 16 percent when the earnings of wives were excluded.
Among other findings of the report:
The average income of households at or below the median grew by only 3.9 percent between 1969 and 1996, while the average income of households above the median grew by 30 percent.
In households with incomes above the median, the proportion of individuals 25 years old and over with a college degree grew from 16 percent to 33 percent. In households with incomes below the median, the proportion of individuals 25 years old and over with a college degree grew from 5 percent to 11 percent.
There was a decline in the number of married-couple households with children (from 41 percent to 26 percent of households), an increase in the number of households with children but no spouse present (from 6 percent to 11 percent), and an increase in one-person households (from 17 percent to 25 percent).
The median income of households with a female householder with children and no spouse rose by 10 percent between 1969 and 1996, but the median income of households with a male householder with children and no spouse fell by 8 percent.
Married-couple households with a householder 65 years old or over had substantial gains in median income, increasing 57 percent (34 percent when the income of wives was excluded).
Among one-person households with a householder 65 years old or over, the median income of both males and females rose 63 percent.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web