On July 20, Labor Secretary Robert Reich raised a question about the cause of rising employment but sinking wages in the United States. Katha Pollitt may have answered it in her piece on July 22. In her closing paragraph she argues that to succeed, single women need only paid parental leave, day care, flexible schedules, child support and pediatricians with evening hours. Dual income families need many of these same services. Each of these bear a cost that must be paid, either by the family unit or society. In either case, purchasing power is reduced because funds must be spent to provide services traditionally provided by the family.
Is it possible that part of the reason for rising employment with overall lower average wages is at least partly due to the rise in dual income and single parent families? The lack of a domestic worker, whose duties were once performed by the "housewife", increases the need to subcontract such functions as cooking, cleaning, and child care to non-family members. This not only dilutes the purchasing power of the family, but also creates demand for lower wage jobs such as food servers, house cleaners, day care attendants and the like.
In no way does this suggest that women should give up their careers to assume their former roles. It is simply to suggest that as long as there are families without a full-time parent at home, there will be demand for someone to perform the duties that were traditionally performed by moms. Economics will not allow these to be high wage jobs, for this would strain family budgets even more. Improved training and education may help to improve our nation's productivity, helping wages to outstrip inflation. Yet the old adage that "two can live as cheaply as one" does not apply when the two must pay for a third.
