More wives outearning their husbands

[Liberal_in_LA]

More wives outearning their husbands
By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporterJanuary 19, 2010: 3:03 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The financial balance of power in American marriages is shifting.

A Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday found that 22% of men made less money than their wives in 2007.

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By comparison, 4% of husbands earned less than their wives in 1970.

A shift in education patterns was a factor in the Pew report, which polled U.S.-born 30- to 44-year olds.

In 1970, 28% of husbands had more education than their wives. By 2007, that figure dropped to 19%.

Slightly more than half of spouses had the same education level in both 1970 and 2007, the most recent year for which data were available.

"For a long time, men didn't need education to make a decent wage -- they could go into manufacturing or other labor," said Jenny Wittner, associate director of the advocacy group Women Employed.

"Women had to get an education to keep up, and over the years that has started to translate into a difference in wages," Wittner added.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/19/news/economy/married_women_salaries/index.htm?hpt=T2

[YOY]

1. Good for them.

Wish my wife was in that position.

[elehhhhna]

2. when we were "allowed" into the workforce, it drove mens wages DOWN,

so we all make jack shit now. Then there are the pay cuts we've (men & women) had forced on us.

And we're supposed to take this crap w/a smile.

[rfranklin]

3. Yes, that's the reality...less pay for more work...

It all started under Reagan. It was "morning" in America--and we woke up on the plantation.

[Carni]

8. YEP! I think that's about the size of it!

Now we can all share in the misery! :(

[reggie the dog]

9. The capitalist scum took advantage of womens liberation

to take the purchasing power of one wage and turn that into the purchasing power of 2 wages. I am sorry but we need to go back to one full time wage being enough to provide for a family of 6. Each partner could work part time, and raise the kids part time. Unemployment would be 0 or near 0. But that would not make the ultra rich any richer so that will not happen short of having a revolt.

[phantom power]

4. My wife has always out-earned me.

Mysteriously, this has not threatened me in any way.

[Bruno A. lives]

5. I don't know if I am happy about this

As a woman working since I was 13, (51 now), I can honestly say the only reason I think this is happening right now is because we are becoming a 3rd world country. Women still make less than men and I have yet to see where we have to stop doing housework, grocery shopping, meals and child care. The women I work with are exhausted! And I worry about my sons who cannot find jobs in today's world. Where is their education and their jobs? I'm not sure if this is a good thing. BAL

[brooklynite]

6. and this is news because...?

My wife makes 20x my income. Never bothered me, and it all goes into a common account.

The key, I think, is that I feel that I'm adequately compensated for my work, so it doesn't really matter how well my wife does.

[reggie the dog]

7. I earn less than my wife

and have so for our entire relationship. The key thing is it does not bother me nor hurt my ego. She is happy so long as I work, or try to find work when my contracts end. (she is set for life with no risk of being fired as she is a French civil servant).

[HeresyLives]

10. Same thing is happening in Canada.

Lots of men worked in factories and those jobs are disappearing, whereas women work in teaching and health, two areas that are rising.

[progressoid]

11. See? We don't need no ERA.

It's all working out just fine.


:sarcasm: