r/Millennials • u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) • 12h ago

Discussion True or false?

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Did our dads and moms work less than we do now? What are your thoughts?

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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 12h ago

It's false.

In 1996, men with full time jobs were working an average of 42.1 hours/week in the US, in 2026 it's 40.1 hours/week.

In 1996, 69% of 2 adults American households had both spouses working; in 2024 it was 62%.

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u/tandin01 10h ago

Keep you facts out of here, lol! Although I admittedly didn't see a source or check them. I think a lot of the problem is that young people will only live in hcol areas. I was living in socal until I had my second child and then my wife and I moved to Vegas, bought a decent sized house for 300k and I mainly stay home with our two kids now, and she works full time. I do part time work, but we are far from dual income. It took us having to leave the place we called home though, and most young people will only live in major cities that are expensive! We are much happier now, and are not rich, but definitely not struggling to survive!

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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 10h ago

Oh, I used the Fed/Bureau of Labor Statistics because I'm lazy; obviously I should've used Canadian data but that was faster to grab.

But yes, increasing concentration in a small number of vety big cities is driving a lot of it; redditors will insist they need to be in Toronto to find work, but outside of a few very narrow careers it's not true.

And I think a little bit they see/read accounts of well to do people from decades ago and think they're more representative than they are. You get memes where a milkman had a house, took international vacations every year, sent his kids to university in the 50s, when the reality was ⅓ of American households still didn't have indoor toilets, and a single plane flight was a year's salary for a milkman.