rsityWhat is the typical middle-class household? Not long ago, it was a husband who held a job, a wife who kept house, and children who came straight home from school. But 25 years of economic upheaval have changed things. Today, it takes two paychecks to keep up with a mortgage, car payments, and the other trappings of middle-class life. What's often overlooked is that two earners no longer guarantee a household's middle-class status. A household's total income depends on the income of each earner, and income levels depend largely on how well-educated the earners are. The income advantage of a college education is doubled when two well-educated people live together. When two less-educated workers join forces, the financial boost they get may only keep them from falling further behind. Education levels determine the ways married couples talk, use media, and make consumer decisions. College- and university educated couples are more likely than other couples to say that their big-ticket purchases are joint decisions, for example. Yet they are less likely to share the decision-making when buying food, perhaps because they are more pressed for timeCouples with fewer than two earners are scattered throughout all educational segments, but they are concentrated in a few demographic categories. Some are living on one paycheck or no paychecks permanently, such as retirees and older"traditional" couples. Those of working ages are likely to be living on one income temporarily, such as parents of preschoolers or couples where one spouse is temporarily unemployed. For purposes of simplicity, we have included all married couples in the following analysis. 5. Dual-earner families is now the normKnow any stay-at-home moms or dads? If so, you are acquainted with a rare species! Of couples with income, not one in five has a single income. That means there are an awful lot of working couples out there!Prior to the mid-1970s, however, it was still the norm...
