Single earner households are slightly less maritably-stable than with one full-time worker and one part-time or side-gig worker, tho. Too little redundancy, perhaps, or too much boredom, once the kids are grown.
Many people competing for the same jobs drives wages down. More than half of households are dual-income households.† This increases the labor pool, which drives down prices.
Ironically, it would seem that, if more families switched to one parent being the primary breadwinner, it would drive up the cost of labor and make single-income households a more sustainable proposition for more families.
The knock-on benefits from the additional time and attention the now stay-at-home or part-time working parents could give their children would have a generationally positive impact on well-being and prosperity.
† Bureau of Labor and Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/comparing-characteristics-and-selected-expenditures-of-dual-and-single-income-households-with-children.htm
Discussion
Homeschooling probably reduces that effect, but I don't have stats on that.
Well, I guess anything practical or intellectual, that the SAHP is doing, will reduce that effect.
Homemakers who run a tight ship in the household and volunteer, or have extensive vegetable gardens, or enjoy taking online classes and joining book clubs, etc. seem to reintegrate well into the main workforce.
So, maybe we're looking primarily at some underlying effect of personality.
Well... I can only speak anecdotally, though I came from a single earner household, but most families weren't raised in a fairly wealthy household environment like mine was. Although, I have known some wealthy families who were quite dysfunctional, but far from all or even most I would say. 🤔
Maybe it was because there was always quite a bit to do around our house. My mum was always busy caring for the garden and such and she's still an avid reader.
Women who are alert and industrious tend to stay busy, regardless of where they are. They have an inner drive.
I'm not denying that. I'm questioning the accuracy of such statistics when dictating the levels of marital stability of single-income in relative to dual-income households.
It's been a shift.
Used to be the other way around, but the middle-class women who used to be homemakers usually work now, and they took their marital stability into the working demographic.
The statistics make sense, though. A woman whose whole existence is keeping a home and raising children will come to be dissatisfied, especially as the kids grow up. A part-time side gig or other similar projects help give a sense of self that can endure changes in a growing and maturing family.
