After the pay channels started encrypting their signals, his business had withered, and he was forced to take a part-time job at a company that uplinked cable programming to different satellites across the country.

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Similarly, in two-adult households, it rarely makes sense for the woman to take up full-time work before the man, or for one to start a part-time job before the other is working part of the reason that almost one in five households has no earner.

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He added the college did not take into account projected earnings from students who aim to have a part-time job during their studies.

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By contrast, the young parents, living on only one income, or if the wife has a part-time job, one-and-a-half incomes, of which the take-home portion, after deductions for tax and pension contributions, are economizing, avoiding major purchases, trying to save a little while making ends meet.

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