Monetary Value of Homemaker's Services

MONETARY VALUE OF HOUSEHOLD SERVICES

This research examines the issue of the value of homemakers' services. For purposes of this research, the term "homemaker" refers to an adult member of a household who stays at home to perform household services, as opposed to working outside the home.

A century ago, only 5 percent of married woman participated in the labor market (Economics and Statistics Administration, 1995, p. 399). In 1940, fewer than one married woman in seven was working outside the home, while 60 percent work outside the home in 1995. Only 17 percent of married couples are one-earner, with the rest having other or no earners. In the mid-1990s, the dual income family is more common than the traditional one-income married household where the husband works and the wife stays at home. In 1980, half of all married couples were dual-income. By 1990, this proportion had increased to about 60 percent (Economics and Statistics Administration, 1995, p. 851).

In contemporary American society, it is necessary for all adults in a majority of the country's households to work outside of the home, if an acceptable standard of living is to be maintained (Belsky, 1990, pp. 10-12). When school-age children are present in these households, the problems faced by parents are exacerbated. Major changes have occurred in the demographics of the American work force in the past three decades. In the mid-1960s, women workers accounted for approximately one-third of all Americans a

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in order to survive economically--whether they are from middle- or low- income families, or whether they head single-parent families or are in two-parent families--and many cannot afford adequate child day care. Low- and middle-income parents of school-age children, and adults heading single-parent families face a real dilemma with respect to child day care. They cannot afford it, and yet they cannot afford to be without such care (Kraus & Chaudry, 1995, pp. 34-43). The cost of minding the kids, however, is not the only factor that must be considered in the monetarily valuing of a homemaker's services. Dual-income families without children in the household in the mid-1990s have a mean annual household income of $54,200, while dual-income families with children in the household have a mean annual household income of $50,500. Married couples in the contemporary period are more likely than were couples in earlier periods to choose partners of equal educational level (Crispell, 1995, p. 32). This proclivity leads to greater diversity of incomes among the partners in dual-earner families, as one partner frequently chooses a more lucrative career. Thus, when one of the partners in such a household stays home to provide househol

Category: Economics - M