<h2>Causes of Growing Inequality: The Changing Composition of American Households</h2>
<p>In 1970, 41% of married women were in the labor force, but by 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 56.7% of married women were in the labor force. One result of this trend is that more households have two earners. Moreover, it has become more common for one high earner to marry another high earner. A few decades ago, the common pattern featured a man with relatively high earnings, such as an executive or a doctor, marrying a woman who did not earn as much, like a secretary or a nurse. Often, the woman would leave paid employment, at least for a few years, to raise a family. However, now doctors are marrying doctors and executives are marrying executives, and mothers with high-powered careers are often returning to work while their children are quite young. This pattern of households with two high earners tends to increase the proportion of high-earning households.</p>
<p>According to data in the National Journal, even as two-earner couples have increased, so have single-parent households. Of all U.S. families, 13.1% were headed by single mothers; the poverty rate among single-parent households tends to be relatively high.</p>
<p>These changes in family structure, including the growth of single-parent families who tend to be at the lower end of the income distribution, and the growth of two-career high-earner couples near the top end of the income distribution, account for roughly half of the rise in income inequality across households in recent decades.</p>
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<p>Visit this <a href="http://danariely.com/2013/03/09/wealth-inequality-in-motion/" rel="nofollow">website</a> to watch a video that illustrates the distribution of wealth in the United States:</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="267" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPKKQnijnsM?rel=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;cc_lang_pref=en&amp;cc_load_policy=1" width="474"><span class="mce_SELRES_start" data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;">﻿</span></iframe></p>
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The Changing Composition of American Households

Economics studies social behavior guiding the allocation of scarce resources to meet the unlimited needs and desires of the individual members of a given society, and for the production of goods and services, growth of production and welfare over time, and a great variety of other complex issues of vital concern to society. 

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The Changing Composition of American Households

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