Have you heard the suggestion that a wife's house keeping responsibilities are worth $75,000 per year?

Question

I don't know who put this propaganda together,but in essence it says that a housewifes chores of cooking,cleaning,laundry and shopping, etc. have a value of $75,000 a year.
I say that is a load of crap!
First off, even if her husband did not provide her a house to live in, she would still have to do the very same chores where ever she lived.
Additionally,house keeping is minimum wage work at best,If one were to subtract housing, food, utilities,health care, car and insurance, cell phone, jewelry,clothes, vacations and more, those expenses would far exceed the value of any house keeping.
Further, using this same premise, If the services provided by the man were assigned a cash value, I.E., auto mechanic, handyman, landscape maintenance,heavy lifting,security and body gaurd,accountant, etc. a woman could not even afford to have a husband.

I believe this suggestion that a homemakers services are worth 75K is self important ,over estimated propaganda by women, Comments?

Answer 1

It is a justification of time. I do every single thing that a stay at home mother does and I do it after work 5 days a week. So many women use the I gotta stay with the children excuse to avoid doing real work. Even with having a FT job and doing the 'housewife' stuff I still find time for my kids and even some time for just me. Women have complained for so long about unfairly they are treated that it's the standard battle cry. Honestly my favorite is the I'm a mother reasoning. Yeah, so what. There have been about 500,000 generations of mother before you. Do you think you are special somehow?

And why is it a woman can claim her family duties as part of the "should be paid for household chores"? I recall many days of walking in the door from work and being handed a baby. Here, I have been with him all day. I don't recall getting paid babysitter duty. And when I cook and wash dishes, I don't recall getting paid for that either.

Edit:
LOL you gotta love the thumb downers. Does it bother you that a man can do the work of two parents and doesn't feel the need to complain? Hmmm? Grow up ladies. If I can do it, so can you.

Answer 2

Depends on where you live (cost of living varies and affects pay rates) and how big the house is. I live in a 1000 square foot home on a small plot of land in the Midwest...so, $75,000/year would be an absurd estimate. $20,000/year to clean my house would be considered generous. However, there are areas of the country where $75,000/year would not be considered obscene, for a sizeable house. And the idea that a woman would have to clean her own abode if she lived alone anyway--negating any monetary value her work may have--pre-supposes that the house or apartment would be the same size and in the same area as the one the couple shares. But single people typically don't have 3 or 4 bedroom houses in suburban neighborhoods the way that couples and families often do. Singles often live in small homes (like mine) or apartments in less affluent areas. P.S.--I suspect that estimate may include child care as well...which would make the figure more reasonable. Also, I don't know many women who don't work outside of the home...and many of those working women have young children they take care of in addition to household duties. You make it sound as though women are lazy, but I don't know many who are.

Answer 3

I have a full-time live-in housekeeper. She works 5.5 days a week (takes off on Saturday afternoon and returns Sunday night).Being in the NYC are, I pay per her $1400 /month. She gets 2-3 weeks vacation a year. She has no expenses -- food, laundry, cable, phone, etc.

And, no, I don't pay her cash under the table... she is on W-2 and I pay her Social Security & Medicare taxes.

She cleans, cooks, takes care of the kids, laundry, etc. Even puts out the garbage and sometimes waters the lawn.

So at $1,400 that is $17,000 /year. Maybe that extra $58K the amount one would pay to an escort service for service 3x week at $350!!!

Answer 4

First off, my husband and I are a team, and we don't keep a running tab of our worth. We are both irreplacable!

Think of it this way. maybe it doesn't work for "just" a wife, but what about a mother? It is a 24 hour a day/ 7 day a week job. No vacation days, no days where you can call in sick. They cook, clean, take care of the kids, do the shopping, run kids back and forth to activities and school, there are a lot of jobs that women do. You can't just look at it from a "wife" job perspective. What about cook, housekeeper, laundress, nanny, nurse, chauffer, psychologist.... the list goes on.

And from a female perspective, the "man" jobs can be considered only occasional things. The lawn doesn't need to be cut every day, and the car doesn't need to be fixed daily either. And the same goes for the man, if he was alone, he would still hav to cut the grass, fix things around his house, etc. And I don't know many women who need a bodyguard or security team, and I fix things around the house all by myself AND I cut the grass, keep the check book and pay all the bills. So I think both theories are down the drain on this one.

But in any case, women don't need "propaganda" to increase their value, especially if they have someone who already values them.

Answer 5

That assumes that the wife in question actually does all these things, and with the same expertise ,professionalism and number of hours for each task. I would not pay someone more than 6 dollars and hour to do laundry, but if it was done 8 hours a day professionally, it would probably be worth about 8 or nine, multiplied by 8 hours. The numbers are just inflated, and make many assumptions just for the "wow" factor. Reality differs greatly. It's just like one of those low skill 'other duties as required' kind of jobs.

If there were this kind of job on the free market, the salary would be nowhere near this much. It's a matter of what the market will bear. Closest comparision I can think of would be a nanny with extra duties.

Answer 6

Yes i have comments.

If a woman keeps the house in good order, cooks, cleans, does laundry, paints, and makes a very nice home for a family (say they have two kids), it's A LOT of work! Picking up after others, and keeping a home looking nice takes much effort.

I was a very good housekeeper, maybe to the point of OCD, i don't know?

i made $35,000 a year working outside of the home i JOINTLY owned with my husband. I cooked, canned, did laundry, helped with homework, gardened, hauled kids all over the place, led cub scouts, and helped with the school in my spare time to mention a few.

Meanwhile i exercised and tried to take care of myself... it was exhausting in looking back (i'm "retired" now, and taking a well-deserved rest!).

I provided quite a lot in our home, financially as well as making physical effort.

I didn't have a lot of jewelry and still don't -- i don't really care much about it... vacations? you're kidding? we rarely took one.

I also spent three years at home with one of my kids who was sick all of the time (reason for the three year break from work). I had hobbies, interests, as well as taking care of the home, kids and yard work.

Daycare came out of my own pocket and i had my own health insurance. I made my own car payments, and car insurance payments. Husband and jointly paid for mortgage and utilities and other things.

I can see that some people dont' keep a nice home or yard... whatever works for them. but i have always been a go-getter and i like things nice... to have that, one must work their butt off.

Answer 7

You're a jerk, that's my comment.
And in some countries women are paid by the government a certain amount to stay home.

By the way when I worked, the chores were split, now that I'm at home I do EVERYTHING. And if you add that I am a housekeeper, nanny, cook, personal shopper, mechanic (I'm teaching my husband about cars), accountant, etc. and I am availble 24/7 with no days off, I am worth a lot. Plus I don't need "security" or a "body guard" I can shoot my gun just as well as hubby, besides I didn't need one before so why do I need one now.

Oh yeah I forgot to add in my escort services when he needs a date for a work function, and my sexual serves... I think I earn my keep, plus a he!! of a lot more.

Answer 8

I've heard that its more like $138,000 a year. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/ThePriceOfAMom.aspx

MSN money calculated that women who are home makers work 2.6 more hours than other workers.

It may be that the hourly rates is being calculated on the fact that its a never ending job. Aside from sleep, and when she's going out with her husband, or doing anything fun or relaxing it's pretty much a 24 hour a day task.

It's especially worth that if she's good at it.

It sounds as though you're really angry at your wife for not working outside the home. Good luck resolving your issues together.

Be thankful you have someone to do the housework. My wife stays at home with our two year old and rarely does any housework of any kind without being asked to do so. It has been a sore spot for us since our marriage over 7 years ago.

Here's another source of the information-an advice column outlining the many tasks a woman does-





Dear Dr. Dave and Dr. Dee,

After our child was born last year, my husband and I decided that I should quit work and focus on the family. I had always worked full-time up until having our son. Although I work hard at keeping our son happy and healthy and the home nice, I feel undervalued. Is this because I am new to staying home full-time, or is this how all moms feel?

Signed,

Unappreciated

Dear Unappreciated,

Many moms feel unappreciated or undervalued, but working women who become stay-at-home moms especially feel undervalued because their self-worth had been tied to a "paycheck."

Stay-at-home moms make special sacrifices, perform many necessary duties, and have important responsibilities. In essence, a mom's worth is priceless.

However, Salary.com has come up with an estimated fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom with two children of $134,121 for executing all of her daily tasks based on a 100-hour work week. Salary.com used a combination of salaries based on what you would have to pay other people to do the same work as a stay-at-home mom. For example the national average salaries for:

1. Day-care Center Teacher $26,891

2. Van Driver $30,762

3. Housekeeper $18,750

4. Cook $31,099

5. CEO $612,623

6. General Maintenance Worker $29,656

Salary.com Stay-at-home Mom Base Pay (40 hours): $45,697

Plus Mom Overtime (60 hours): $88,424

TOTAL Stay-at-Home Mom Salary: $134,121

Good luck.

Dwight

Answer 9

Have you priced a houskeeper latley? Or a live in nanny? or even a Maid service? And not all husbands supply all the things you mentioned in your deductions -dont forget the demands and complaining that come from the husband as well as expect the wife to work a full time job and hand over my paycheck to you as well.

I think its a $100,000 per year -plus

Think about the hours put in (do they ever end?) And you want more more more -while you sit on the couch and hollar "Hey you, another beer."

If I could affford even a maid service -my work load at home from cooking, shopping, laundry and waiting on my man along with caring for the kids would still be Hours put in that represent WORK -personally I work double shift just so I can get paid from work -so i dont have to WORK at home for free. Especially when I get Bitched at -at home and not at work.

Answer 10

What a bunch of nonsense! A husband should pay his wife for being his wife? Nonsense! Where do these people dig up this stuff at? For $75,000 a year I could hire a beautiful young girl do do all that stuff. Don't believe me? Try it. And not have to be with someone who wants to get paid. There are a lot of women out there who would love it!! Get paid for doing a wife's duties? Crazy. No wonder the divorce rate is so high.