Brookings: Median Family Income is Up Because . . . A Family Member Went Back to Work

Thanks, Mom

A report from the Bookings Institute has this headline

The Great Recession May Be Over, but American Families Are Working Harder than Ever

which first of all draws a comment that no, while a nice comfortable job at the Brookings Institute means no recession for the authors, the Great Recession for the rest of the country is not over by any reasonable definition.

The major point here is that while median family income, after adjusting for inflation has risen, the rise is a result of the spouse, typically the mother joining the workforce.

  Although median wages for two-parent families have increased 23 percent since 1975, the evidence suggests that this is not the result of higher wages. Rather, these families are just working more. In 2009, for instance, the typical two-parent family worked 26 percent longer than the typical family in 1975.

Families earning the median income now work about 3500 hours, on average, compared to 2800 hours in 1975. The 26 percent increase in hours worked mainly reflects increases in work outside of the home among women. In fact, among two-parent families with median earnings, the hours of men were relatively constant over time, while hours worked by women more than doubled from 1975 to 2009. It was this increased contribution to work outside of the home, mostly by women, rather than wage increases, that led to higher earnings for the typical two-parent family.

So we now know part of the reason why middle income families were able to have income increases when most of the economic growth was accruing to high income families, Mom went back to work.  All of this bodes poorly for future economic growth, because this is a one time event.  Unless polygamy becomes the norm there are no more spouse to go back to work to shore up family finances.