Word: earner
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...Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 30.4 million U.S. families (53% of the total) have at least two earners; their median income is $20,400, or $7,200 above that of one-earner families. But this includes couples of all ages with some of the spouses working only part-time. Yet there is a powerful and growing subgroup: moneyed, self-indulgent, career-oriented families in which the husbands are in their mid-20s to mid-30s. Of the 11 million families in this age bracket, nearly four million are households where the wife has a full-time job. And many...
...since they saw their parents hurt by inflation and market plunges. Compared with young couples ten or 20 years ago, they spend more and plan less for the future, figuring that something (Medicare, Social Security or private pensions) will take care of that distant tomorrow. Collectively, these young two-earner families are a new elite...
...elite spends more than traditional single-earner families on entertainment, furniture, cameras, kitchen equipment, cars, travel. Compared with older affluent people, they spend more casually on golf, tennis and swimming club memberships. They buy more fast-food take-outs and restaurant meals; when cooking at home, they prefer costlier foods and wines. They pay freely for child care, and the working wife needs her own full wardrobe of office clothes. Their philosophy is expressed by a community service representative for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Robert Molina, 24, whose wife is a clerk in the sheriffs office: "When...
These young couples are having a major economic impact. The U.S. League of Savings Associations reports that 45% of all 1977 home buyers were two-earner families and more than two-thirds of them were under 34. When buying houses, the elite pays large sums, but is very particular. Observes David Kosta, a broker at Swanson Associates, realtors in Winchester, Mass.: "Single-income families want the most modern homes, with everything showy. The double-income couple likes older houses with character. They want the original woodwork and even the old-fashioned plumbing fixtures...
...travel business. "We are fairly typical," he notes. "If a couple has not made the major purchase of a house, they put their extra income into seeing the world." When the new elite travels, it is to stay longer at more distant, expensive and exotic destinations. Young two-earner couples prefer to pay more for guaranteed rather than stand-by tickets and avoid large prearranged tours; they are often willing to dish out $3,000 or more for advance bookings...