And perhaps it's mostly an illusion..Because of inflation while we may be bringing home 32.5% more (on average) than in 2000, our buying power is actually down -5.7% Which means that we HAVE to be bringing in at least 40% more than in 2000 to stay at the same buying power we had.
And besides that. When one person is home it's much easier to be frugal than when both work. When we talk with people about income we explain ours this way.. DH brings in the money, and my job is to make it stretch as far as I can. When you don't have someone who can concentrate on the stretching and being at home to do the things that make that work.. time to yard sale for needed items or to hunt for the best deals, to run to the store at least every week to get only those things currently on sale and to keep enough stocked up that you never have to buy stuff not on sale.. and it's really hard to do all of that on top of another job. That's why you almost always see when young families are trying to decide if the mom should stay home that they're told to consider the COSTS of both working to include it in the budget to see if having both working brings them out ahead or not. (hint: often not)
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/commentaries/Real-Incomes-Four-Years-After-the-Great-Recession.php