The 40 Hr Work Week...

If you include commute time, I don't think anyone works just 40hrs and makes it. My wife logs in probably 50-60hrs, some weeks more, some weeks less.

Wages in America have been stagnant for the last 30 years. This means that we are working harder and not making any more money. On top of that, things cost more, so whatever money we have, can't go as far. This is only for the 99%, btw. The other 1% has seen a ridiculous increase in their wealth (like 300%!)

Add to that that no one actually works a 40 hour work week. It use to be you were at work from 9-5. Now, lunch and breaks aren't counted towards work, so you have to be at work from 8-5. Add to that a desire to get a good review, and you have to be at work from 7-5, at least, and on call 24-7.

There are some that argue that all the feminist movement has accomplished was enslaving both parents to the capitalist system to earn what one could make by themselves in the past. One 40 an hour week job cannot provide the necessary support it once did. Factory jobs use to pay decently, in the 20-50 an hour. Now they pay a little above minimum wage up to 20 an hour.

The system is squeezing us. So no, only certain segments of the population can live off a 40 an hour job. My husband has one of these jobs, and he works 70 hours a week and travels a lot. But he makes good money. But he basically works as many hours as 2 people, so even in his case a 40 hour a week job that supports a family of 4 isn't actually true.

I live in Orange County, CA and one 40 hour/week "career" would not support our family of three in this county. I work 40 hours/week and my husband works, on average, 55-60 hours/week. We've lived here our entire lives, except for 2 years when we lived in Morro Bay.

All of our family friends who live in this county are two-income families. None have the option to be SAHM's or SAHD's. And they are all working professionals, with degrees.

My commute is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending upon traffic. My typical work week is anywhere from 50-70 hours (not including the commute). Sometimes I get lucky and can work from home, so I can be home as soon as I'm done working! My job is strictly management of other people, so it is not physically demanding, but it is stressful, and often times I'm on call - meaning that all the company's phones are forwarded to my cell phone, and if it rings, I have to answer it and deal with whatever the problem is. This can mean I'm up several times during the night to deal with work related stuff.

That said, I make a hefty salary and we are comfortable financially. But is it worth it? I don't know. I'd love to be able to work closer to 40 hours a week and spend the rest of the time with my kids. But with my job and in this economy where jobs aren't exactly a dime a dozen, that's not possible. If we had to live on my husband's current salary, I have no idea how we would do it. For sure we wouldn't have health insurance, we would have to move into a house half this size, and even then I'm not sure we could do it.

this is such a subjective question. there is a HUGE difference between someone working 40 hours a week with a degree, or multiple degrees, and someone working 40 hours a week without one. it depends on where you live, too, how many kids you have, etc. i do not have a degree, neither does my husband, and we both HAVE to work. we could not pay rent, 1 car payment (225/mo) and preschool/gas/food/utilities/insurance/etc if not. no way.

but i know for a fact that lots of people make double what i do, and that is still considered "middle class". so yes, they could, technically, get by on one income. if they lived like we do. but most people aren't willing to do with less.

You are right, it used to be easier to support a family on one income. Google "middle class squeeze" and read some articles, you will learn how middle class earnings relative to cost of living have been going down for decades.
Anyway. My husband has a 40 hour week but when you add the one hour unpaid lunch break, it's 45. Up until recently he hardly ever had to work more than that, but in the past few months he's been going in early, staying late, bringing work home etc. Not EVERY day, but off and on. I would say on average he works at least 50 hours a week. And he's salary, so any "overtime" is unpaid.
I'm lucky, I NEVER have to work overtime, I take a short lunch, and my commute is only 10 minutes. I also have on-site daycare. :) My work week comes out to 42.5 hours including lunches.
We are comfortable, but it kills me not to be able to stay home. We could probably squeak by on just hubs's salary, but I feel like we'd just be trading one set of problems for another (i.e. financial stress). Also, I have a real pension plan and if I leave my job now, realistically I'd have to change careers all over again once it was time to get back into the workforce.
It's a tough decision....tough time to be raising a family for many folks to be sure.

Well - we are both business professionals with Master degrees - and between my husbands f/t job and my f/t work from home job (which is really a real job - benefits, health insurance, etc) we bring home over a respectable 6 figure salary. I'm sure we could make it on just my hubby's job but it would be very very tight. We live in a fairly expensive part of Colorado, have SO MANY student loans (almost $60k) and are working steadily to pay down credit card debt.

I am thankful EVERYDAY that we both have good jobs that are stable. One of the reasons I'm so focused on paying down debt is because I worry that the bottom could fall out of either of our jobs and then we'd be hurting in a big way.

I know we could live on less - you find a way to make it work no matter what - but I hope it doesn't get to that. I deeply admire all you M.'s working so hard to make it on less...

I work a FT job that provides 60-70% of our household income. I work some days at home and some in the office. An easy week is 35-40 hours, and typical week is closer to 50 but 60+ is not unheard of when we get busy. I'm on salary so I get paid the same no matter how much I work. I have a bachelor's degree and 10+ years experience in my field.

My husband is also college educated and used to work with me but hates office jobs. In his current field, he alternates between being self-employed and an employee and is never on a straight salary. In a busy season, he can literally work almost 100 hours a week (sleeping 4-5 hours a night and working the weekend too) and most weeks works 40, but a lot of that is at home at night doing his paperwork. When he calculates his pay per hour, it's so far under minimum wage it's laughable.

On top of that, I work as a private tutor and classroom test prep instructor. A busy week can be 20 hours, a typical week is 4-6 hours, and the work is seasonal.

So I guess that's a long way of saying that no, a 40 hour work week could not support my family, not by a long shot. Our combined household income is over $100K per year (gross). Our mortgage takes up $30K per year (for a small shack of a house). Our health insurance premium is $5K per year, childcare is $10K (and all of our kids are in school - that's extended Kindergarten, after school and a summer baby-sitter). Food, toiletries and household supplies for our family of 6 is $12K per year. Gas is $5K. Heating oil/phones/utilities $5K. Sports and activities for kids $5K. Car payment is $2500 per year, and we're paying down other debt at a rate of about $8K this year. So that's up to $80K on just basic bills - after taxes, there's not much, if anything, left over for other incidentals or emergencies and certainly no savings beyond the meager contributions I make to my retirement and college savings plans.

That said, I am very grateful that I have my primary job (layoffs are coming next week and I pray I'll be spared), my husband has always been able to find work in his field even if the pay is terrible and for the most part, when I've needed extra money, tutoring jobs come through at the right time. For example, in the past three weeks, which is normally a slow time, I picked up 30+ hours of work and that will pay for Christmas presents for the kids. It meant not putting my kids to bed for many nights, but at least they'll have something to open under the tree in a few weeks :-)

I'm a SAHM. My husband's commute consists of throwing on a baseball cap, sweats and walking into his study with his cup of tea (yep, he telecommutes). Or, when he DOES go into the office, he drives 1 1/2 hours each way, so he only goes in once or twice a week. Because he can do his job anywhere in the world, he never technically leaves work. He gets up at 6:30, by 7am he's already checked his email and put in at least 20 minutes of work. He's on conference calls all day long. Then *sometimes* he makes it out to join the family for dinner around 6pm. He's usually back on his computer well into the evening hours. But working at home does have its perks. Every once in a while, we have a lunch date. He's usually home during homework time if one of the kids needs help. He LOVES working from home, so it's less stressful and makes for a happier daddy. For all this, he gets paid very well and I get to have a very comfortable life. So no complaints here at all. I consider myself very fortunate.

I know how it is to be home for the kids. I have worked most of my adult life and work 3 part time jobs right now.

We are raising 2 of my grandchildren. The court order states the parents are supposed to be paying child support but only one is faithful. The other dad has funds held out by child support enforcement when he is employed. My daughter has never paid a penny, just graduated from rehab in October and is currently on TANF, food stamps, and lives in low income housing. She is going to school and has made much progress.

I would say to you if you really want to make more income and don't want your hubby to work even more hours then you should try to find at least part time employment. You will qualify for child care assistance if you are getting WIC, if the child is in your home through the state child welfare program they may even pay the entire amount of child care for you. I think you are fortunate to have your family. They are such a blessing for your family.

I work 35 to 40 hours a week. Hubby is salary, and puts in an average of 50 hrs per week. We live comfortably on both salaries, but I'm also very frugal.

If we had to, we could live on just my salary, but it would mean cutting back and living without all the little extras we enjoy (occassional eat out, mini vacations, school trips for the kids, etc).

My husband works 60 hrs a week with a 30 minute commute each way. We are doing great financially.

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I use to be a SAHM. With my husbands check we were able to pay everything we needed and have extra money. His job was very physical and it involved traveling. We reached a point where it wasn't enough for our family for him to be home only 3 days a week ( F- Su).

I was honestly getting burnt out raising 5 kids by myself and running the house hold. I felt like a single mom, honestly.

After MANY, LONG talks we agreed with what he was paying out for his travel, toll on the van ( our only vehicle), his meals etc and more importantly the family time he was missing out on, we decided for him to take another job that wasn't as physical now rather than when he couldn't do this job longer and take a $5 an hour pay cut so he could be home every night would equal out to being about the same.

We were right... actually we had more left over, but not much. The only thing we didn't think about was the cost of health insurance. At his other job they didn't offer any ( thankfully other than yearly check ups we had no major medical bills). Now they take $150 out of check weekly. That put a huge burden on us!!

I had to go and get a job and thankfully ( I think) its at night so we only have 3 hours of daycare a week to pay for. If we had to pay more in daycare it would be a wash what I was working for. I only bring home about $250-300 a week. But on the down side I have barly any time with my family now. Im home with the two little ones during the day while my husband and 3 older ones are in school. I have Tuesdays and Wednesday off... so our only "family" time is on those nights. My two boys from my previous marriage are with thier Dad on Wednesdays :(

So.. yes if I had to actually pay for daycare we would be in trouble! We would be so stuck. For us honestly if we had to pay daycare we would be farther ahead and to be looking out for my family ( food on the table...) I would stay home with the kids and get state help. It would be a very hard choice and not a proud one but if it meant food on the table for my kids, when it wouldn't otherwise be there... its a choice I would make.

I was a SAHM, i have been working PT for my fathers studio for a year now. My husband lost his overtime and we needed that to eat. His commute is terrible. We live near Philadelphia, Pa and he commutes to Newark, De mon thru fri. Apparently, the bonus he gets in April will make it all worth it.... fingers crossed :) We dont have any aid, the only aid that we ever had was WIC when we were 18 and 19 and had 2 babies. We do live paycheck to paycheck, but we still live happily :)

I am a stay at home mom. My SO works 40 hours and has a 15 minute communt (unless he is TDY, than he gets overtime). We do well on his income, which is why I am able to stay home and focus on our boys and their activities. I am thankful for that every day.

With commute my husband and I both work 47 hours per week. We figured it out prior to our second child being born - we could afford, barely, for only me to work however if my husband could have gotten just a part time job on the weekends and brought home maybe $200 per month we could have done it..........he said he wouldn't stay home....he said that with how he was doing at work he'd be making much more in commission soon however if he did start making more than me and I stayed home we wouldn't have such great healthcare (I pay $75 per pay period and the insurance is fantastic - for example, I had two C-sections and all I paid the whole pregancy and hospital stay/surgery was a one time copay of $50).

We do well however we have a lot of credit card debt we continue to pay off from when we were in our mid-20's and stupid = if it weren't for that we'd be very good right now.

I SAH, my husband works 60+ hrs / week, but at least 13 of those hours are due to a long commute. When I first became a SAHM, he made just over 50k but we only had a car and house payment. With luck and hard work, we are much more comfy now. I think a lot of it has to do with cost of living - when I watch House Hunters (guilty pleasure), I am astounded at how much homes cost in other areas of the country and how high the cost of living must be.

We work from home running our company and it is WAY more than 40 hrs a week for each of us.

Hubby was up by 3am and on a 6am flight to Houston (a regular monthly route), and is still making sales calls (business dinnner) and will not check in to his hotel until at least 9pm tonight. He flies home Thursday and each day is just as taxing with 4+ sales calls and business dinners and lunches.. (Yes, they are work)

Me: up with hubby at 3, checked emails, got his boarding pass for flight, got him out the door to be on time. Took a nap until daughter was up at 6:15, chatted with her at breakfast, while she got ready for school, I cut up fruit and made baggies of snacks for her lunch since she is skipping lunch due to being sick the week before Thanksgiving and doing makeup work during her lunch instead. She leaves by 7:15, I am back on computer, running quickbooks and reports, scheduling airline tickets for Jan-March 12, run some errands, more company work, getting invoicing out, mail runs WHEE... isome nvoices paid! go to bank make deposits, back home. Daughter leaves school at 4:15, will be captain of cheer tonight, has APUSH, AP English and AP Spanish test tomorrow, no way she'll be home by 9:30 and 8:30 is when she goes to bed. I am now back to work while she is gone to finish up expense reports for the week and run accounts payable for this week.

This is 1 normal day in our household. I drove appx 12 miles round trip.

Multiply this by 7 because we work every day which is vital if you own your own company. A sacrifice I am willing to make.

To add........ WHOO HOO... November was our 2nd highest month of the year. Manufacturing is booming. We forecasted very low and blew it out of the water. December is looking great as well. Things are improving, no thanks to bo

I agree with others... live with no debt and beneath your means. Delayed gratification... It pays off in the long run.

Between Troy and I we work 90 to 100 hours a week. We don't both have to work but see no reason why we shouldn't. I have a flexible hour job and my kids are not babies.

Nearly all of my friends are stay at home moms. Their husbands incomes range from 30,000 to 300,000, all of them own homes. This is just the world I come from, this is normal for me. Troy scratches his head a lot when he hears things I say, things I claim as the norm. I do the same when I visit his home town.

I work 45 hours a week with a 15 min commute and that's considered short hours amongst people we know. My husband was working 75 hour weeks before he was laid off. One of our salaries, especially mine, could support us but my husband's job is typically unstable. He is college educated with a masters degree as well but it's tough put there. I'm incredibly lucky with my job so I keep it. If we were just on my husband's salary, it'd be ok bc of my savings from my job. If I'd never worked, it'd be tight. But this is an interesting question bc reading all the bashing of bankers etc, I've wondered if most people know how many hours a week investment bankers work. On average about 70-80...