KELO reports that South Dakota continues to have the highest percentage of two-income families in the nation. The Census Bureau counts up the young kids (under six years old) who see both Mom and Dad go to work.
The national average: 62%
The South Dakota average: 74% -- highest in the nation.
The Minnesota average: 70%
Hmmm... Even with the income tax, more Minnesota parents can find jobs with good enough pay that one of them can stay home and raise the little ones.
As a dad who can work mostly from home and help out a mom who works entirely from home, I suggest as I have before that real family values mean paying folks better wages so they can afford to spend more time being parents (and spouses, and friends) and less time being cogs in the economy.
So do you need two incomes to make ends meet? An August WSJ blog post asks that question and gets some good discussion. Weigh in with your thoughts....
Of course, my family needs two incomes to pay the bills and put food on the table.
ReplyDeleteThis may be a fatal statement especially on this blog, but this is why I have such a hard time digesting the big push to get educators more income. Full disclosure: I do believe educators need and deserve more money. But it doesn't stop there. 74% of South Dakotans are not educators. I believe there should be a push for all human service related jobs to make more income. For example, Child Protection workers are some of the lowest paid workers in the state. What about fire fighters, police officers, county health nureses. I think you get my point.
I believe that if we society were to push for higher wages in all human service positions there would be more successful resolutions to the educators.
Hellifino, I don't know where you are getting off saying cops are underpaid? Have you looked at the hourly wage of a State Trooper or a DCI agent? For what they do, I'd say they are terribly overpaid.
ReplyDeleteI would contend that family values are of the utmost importance to my husband and I, but both of us do work outside of the home. Do not get me wrong here, I am not saying that a parent that stays home to take care of the children is not working full time- they definately are! But, as a working parent, I am also showing my children how to go to work. A value that perhaps is why the South Dakota/ Midwestern work ethic is known nationwide.
ReplyDeleteBe careful who you are setting aside as a bad parent. We are the ones that continue to put forth the strong young men and women.
Anon 9:30. You are very defensive. Interesting! This post topic is about South Dakotan's having to work two jobs and still value family. My arguement is such that educators are not the only profession that is under paid. There are many professions (that have BA or higher in degrees) that require both parents to work, while at the same time spend quality time with thier loved ones. I am just saying South Dakotans need to look at more professions that singling one out.
ReplyDeleteYou make the arguement that cops are overpaid. Hmmm. There are cops in this state that work for $10.00 an hour out west. I did do some research on the Argus Leader website and there are DCI agents that make $18.00 an hour. Overpaid for what they do? These are people that called to help other officers. Now your arguement on state troopers. Again the argus leader shows us several of them that only make $17 or $18 an hour. Now these folks work nights/weekends and holidays and don't get to spend all that much quality time with thier families. I for one am gratefull that I don't have to work for $17 an hour on the Interstate on an accident when we drive past them at 75 mph or more.
Point: every profession in SD needs (including educators) thier wages raised and maybe then we can have less than 74% of two parent working homes.
Anon 12:02: Don't worry! I don't mean to cast any aspersions on you and your husband's family values for working outside the home. You're right: showing your kids that work ethic we value around here is very important.
ReplyDeleteMy beef is with employers who don't pay people what they deserve for their awesome work ethic. hellifino has a point: there are all sorts of South Dakota employers who take advantage of the South Dakota work ethic without paying their employees what they're worth, because they know it's also ingrained in a lot of us to take what we're given without complaining. Rather than fight for better wages, we just sacrifice family time and work more hours.
Again, to emphasize, Anon 12:02: I do not criticize you and your husband for both working outside the home. You've got bills to pay -- you do what you need to do. I do criticize a state economy that expects almost everyone to work outside the home and makes it hard for people to choose to stay home with their kids. For some people, family values means having one parent at home, but our state says to those people, "Too bad: we're not going to provide you with a living wage for your honest work to make exercising your family values possible."
74% in SD and 70% in MN. IMO not a very huge difference. All professions are underpaid in SD, evidently in MN also. One of the problems today is not the money that people earn but the things that people feel they "have" to have in order to live. In my generation my mother was a fulltime homemaker and my dad a farmer. We pretty much lived month to month I suppose, but we kids never knew it. We didn't have many toys (we had imagination instead), did have one TV, clothes were sewn by mom and grandma, only one car, only occasional movies, one or two pair of shoes, I think you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons it costs more to live nowadays is that we think we need so much more stuff.
We were fortunate to make it work on one income before our children started school, and we are thankful that our kids had the benefit of more family contact during the day when they were little.
ReplyDeleteThere are benefits to parents raising their children versus daycare. At the time, we weighed the cost of daycare, added medical costs and prescriptions from the kids being sick much of the time and that $6 an hour for that second job just didn't add up.
Granted, the primary job paid in the mid 30-s, but that isn't huge money because you're not taking home $3000 a month. There were many times during those years when we wish we had more money, but we simply went without a few things and took care of what we had to make it last longer.
It is difficult for a family making less than $40,000 a year not to have a second job in the household. Criticism of those who have two working parents serves no purpose.
The key to raising good children is to make as much family-time as possible regardless of how many wage earners there are.
Looks like I'd better make it clear again, just in case: you'll hear no criticism here of parents who both choose to work. That's fine. I criticize the economic system that imposes the two-income lifestyle on families who would choose to have one parent stay but can't afford to, not because they are lazy, but because the businesses, schools, etc. won't pay a living wage.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Anon 3:29 -- I didn't forget about you! I like your observation that our pay feels like less now because we think we need so much more stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd the SD vs MN #2: indeed, 74% to 70% usually isn't a big difference. But given that people tell me it costs so much more to live in MN, I'd expect the MN number to be higher than ours. In that light, the MN # would be remarkable even if it were just equal to ours... and wow! It's actually lower!