The payroll tax holiday goes away, raising taxes on America's 160 million wage earners.
The expiration would effectively amount to a 6.2 percent tax increase on all of America's 160 million wage earners.
"If you have two wage earners, the strain on paying the bills is greater, and there are career pressures.
Until about 50 years ago, households with one wage earner were taxed more heavily than those with a similar total income in which there were two wage earners.
Mr. Ayud, one of only two wage earners in his 16-member family, lost most of his expected earnings for the year, about $1,000, he said.
By inauguration day March 4, 1933 most banks had shut down, industrial production had fallen to just 56 percent of its 1929 level, at least 13 million wage earners were unemployed, and farmers were in desperate straits.
Even that estimate could be optimistic if Washington lawmakers fail to extend aid for the long-term unemployed and a payroll tax cut for the United States' 160 million wage earners.
Dr. Gallagher, the clinical psychologist, said the high cost of living on Long Island made two wage earners a necessity in most families, and that this often contributed to stress in marriages.
This may sound like a lot of money for a city cop earning less than fifty thousand dollars a year, but the government subsidizes house buyers with a generous tax break on interest, and in most families there are two wage earners.
With two wage earners and low down payments, middle-class families took on bigger mortgages and contributed to an increase in the cost of housing, especially when families with children paid a premium for property in school districts with high test scores.
