Csara
05-21-2003, 11:47 AM
The Basics
What's a homemaker worth? The shocking truth
The value of a stay-at-home spouse is priceless in many ways, but don't kid yourself: In economic terms, running a household is worth far less than we've been told.
By Liz Pulliam Weston
Mother’s Day is approaching, so the air is filling with paeans to Mom and statistics about what a homemaker is worth.
Whether the figure is $90,000 or $125,000 or even $500,000, the numbers are meant to show how important is the unpaid work performed by the stay-at-home spouse.
Unfortunately, the statistics are codswallop.
The economic value of a homemaker is closer to $30,000 a year. Our society doesn’t place a high dollar value on a homemaker's work, and those who choose to stay home do so at their own economic peril.
No glamorous awards ceremony
How I wish this weren’t true. If it were up to me, the job of stay-at-home parent would come with retirement and health benefits, annual paid vacations and an award ceremony each spring to rival the Oscars.
Since you’ve yet to elect me Queen of the World, however, we’re stuck with the economic system we’ve got, and it does not work in favor of unpaid domestics.
The numbers that purport to show otherwise are flights of the author’s fancy. They’re typically constructed from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' average pay figures for a variety of occupations including:
Child-care worker, $8.91 an hour
Maid, $8.02 an hour
Food preparation supervisor, $11.70 an hour
Bookkeeper, $11.94 an hour
Chauffeur, $8.67 an hour
The formula is simple. Figure out how many hours, on average, a homemaker performs each task, multiply those hours by the appropriate wage and come up with an impressive and completely overblown annual figure.
Economics and the real world: Keep Reading.... (http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CollegeandFamily/P46800.asp)
What's a homemaker worth? The shocking truth
The value of a stay-at-home spouse is priceless in many ways, but don't kid yourself: In economic terms, running a household is worth far less than we've been told.
By Liz Pulliam Weston
Mother’s Day is approaching, so the air is filling with paeans to Mom and statistics about what a homemaker is worth.
Whether the figure is $90,000 or $125,000 or even $500,000, the numbers are meant to show how important is the unpaid work performed by the stay-at-home spouse.
Unfortunately, the statistics are codswallop.
The economic value of a homemaker is closer to $30,000 a year. Our society doesn’t place a high dollar value on a homemaker's work, and those who choose to stay home do so at their own economic peril.
No glamorous awards ceremony
How I wish this weren’t true. If it were up to me, the job of stay-at-home parent would come with retirement and health benefits, annual paid vacations and an award ceremony each spring to rival the Oscars.
Since you’ve yet to elect me Queen of the World, however, we’re stuck with the economic system we’ve got, and it does not work in favor of unpaid domestics.
The numbers that purport to show otherwise are flights of the author’s fancy. They’re typically constructed from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' average pay figures for a variety of occupations including:
Child-care worker, $8.91 an hour
Maid, $8.02 an hour
Food preparation supervisor, $11.70 an hour
Bookkeeper, $11.94 an hour
Chauffeur, $8.67 an hour
The formula is simple. Figure out how many hours, on average, a homemaker performs each task, multiply those hours by the appropriate wage and come up with an impressive and completely overblown annual figure.
Economics and the real world: Keep Reading.... (http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CollegeandFamily/P46800.asp)