Financial Value of SAHM Services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then how much does a working mom who is also primary parent provide? I do food cooking cleaning laundry drop offs night wakes baths organizing and playing, schedule everything and plan. And I am the main breadwinner. So my services would be another $22 per hour for all that work, plus my salary.

It's an asinine little game. It's worth what you are willing to exchange for it.

Agree. I work for a small non-profit and make about 2/3 of what I'm "worth." But I chose this job with this low salary, so my hypothetical worth is pretty irrelevant. When we're looking at our household finances, I can't really tell my spouse, "well, I only make $x, but you have to keep in mind that I'm worth $y!" And like the pp, I work for free in my home every morning, evening, and night, which for everyone but the super rich is called living.

(I do think that unpaid work caring for children and homes should be acknowledged as valuable and hard work, but I don't think trying to translate it into strictly economic term works-clearly the OP is not doing it for the money, so why try to measure it that way).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. I choose not to work but if I did, I would still have to cook, clean, drive, bathe the kids, etc. the difference is I have far more time which I appreciate. If anything you compare it to a nanny who makes 1/3 of that. V

That's just it. There is nothing tangible that a SAHM does that is any different from any other parent. Everyone has to chaueffer their kids around, everyone has to go grocery shopping, everyone has to clean their house everyone has to make sure their young children are supervised.

The benefits of a SAHM are mostly intangible and very difficult to quanitfy economically. It's easy to quatify the 0-5 age day care because if a parent doesn't do it, then you have to pay someone else. And if one parent travels a lot or is out of the home a lot, then again, it's the supervision of the children that has to be done and can be quantified. The other stuff....everyone has to do it--SAHM and WOHP.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be significantly less because by the SAHM being out of the workforce they are losing skill set. And there is an opportunity cost that is lost.

Monetarily I think it's what day care costs.

[Anonymous]

I was a SAHM who went back to work a year ago and have 3 elementary aged kids. It costs me about $15K/year in childcare to work and I chose to spend another $5K/year for a weekly housekeeper (although I had a biweekly one when I stayed at home).
So in these terms, my salary as a SAHM should have been $17.5K. Everything else I did as a SAHM I still do as a full time working mom.

[Anonymous]

Before the kids were in school, the value was equivalent to whatever full time child care costs. I stayed at home in large part because I couldn't earn more than $50,000 a year in my field that that's what we figured I'd have to make in order to actually take home enough money to justify working. I agree with PP, I'd be doing everything else anyway.

Now that the kids are in school, the only value is that DD doesn't have to quit dancing because I'm available to take her to class after school and DH gets to have the career of his dreams because he has someone else to do 100% of the parenting when he has to travel or is just swamped with work. So from DD and DH's perspective, my value is priceless. Real financial value? Not much.

[Anonymous]

There is no monetary equivalent for raising your own children. The pay is not in dollars.

[Anonymous]

The $15k a year I spend in daycare. Next year when public school is available, the cost of aftercare, so what, $300 a month.

Everything else a SAHM does working parents have to take care of too, so you get nothing for cleaning, cooking, running errands, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The $15k a year I spend in daycare. Next year when public school is available, the cost of aftercare, so what, $300 a month.

Everything else a SAHM does working parents have to take care of too, so you get nothing for cleaning, cooking, running errands, etc.

FWIW, I think OP is a troll trying to stir up the "value of a SAHM" debate. But I'll bite and agree with PP that WOHPs do most of the same stuff as SAHPs. No one is going to call a SAHM a martyr for doing the laundry, grocery shopping, and running a vacuum. I do all that stuff and work a 40 hour a week job.

Like others said, the benefits to staying at home are intangible. I'd love to be a SAHM in this area, but can't afford to comfortably live on just DH's salary. Most of my friends who SAH have very wealthy husbands and also have maids, frequent babysitters, etc. so I don't exactly think they're "sacrificing" by staying home. Of course, some women don't make enough money to justify paying daycare costs, so they probably are sacrificing a few years of work experience to stay home.

In sum, I think it's impossible to make a generic statement about the value of a SAHP. I certainly don't think a SAHM is as valuable as many other 100k professions out there, not to mention you don't pay into SS or a 401k as a SAHP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. I choose not to work but if I did, I would still have to cook, clean, drive, bathe the kids, etc. the difference is I have far more time which I appreciate. If anything you compare it to a nanny who makes 1/3 of that. V

That's just it. There is nothing tangible that a SAHM does that is any different from any other parent. Everyone has to chaueffer their kids around, everyone has to go grocery shopping, everyone has to clean their house everyone has to make sure their young children are supervised.

The benefits of a SAHM are mostly intangible and very difficult to quanitfy economically. It's easy to quatify the 0-5 age day care because if a parent doesn't do it, then you have to pay someone else. And if one parent travels a lot or is out of the home a lot, then again, it's the supervision of the children that has to be done and can be quantified. The other stuff....everyone has to do it--SAHM and WOHP.

You have to pay someone else to do it until the kid is a teen -- unless you are ok with a latchkey kid who stays at home alone on school holidays, summer vacation, inservice days, snow days, and every school day between 3-5 or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a mom who gave birth to two kids. I think my DH values these kids above everything he owns and he will earn in a lifetime. So, basically - my value is - priceless.

nope Your value as a mom is priceless. The SAH part isn't really relevant. but this is a stupid question anyhow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a mom who gave birth to two kids. I think my DH values these kids above everything he owns and he will earn in a lifetime. So, basically - my value is - priceless.

nope Your value as a mom is priceless. The SAH part isn't really relevant. but this is a stupid question anyhow

Agreed. I am pregnant with my first and hope to be priceless to my child, but I don't think the fact I will be returning to work after a 3-month maternity leave lessens my value as a spouse or parent. If SAH works for your family, then by all means do it, but don't act like you are some invaluable commodity because you're a mom who doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was debating with a friend recently about the economic value of SAHMs. I believe we provide services worth at least 100k in real economic terms.

What does dcum have to say about it? What's your hhi cutoff for sahm?

Not this crap again. Depends on how big your house is, how many kids you have and their ages. Balanced against your earning potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From an economic POV, you are worth the cost of daycare or nanny, plus the cost of a cleaning lady and perhaps the cost savings of not ordering in periodically, all of which should be trued up for taxes.

So say about $36,000 for the nanny, maybe $2,000 for the cleaning lady and $2,000 for the not eating out as often (since presumably as a SAHM you'd cook more frequently than if you worked). Call it $40,000 post tax or worth about $60,000 post tax.

That value goes down as the kids get older and can clean for themselves and don't require full time 50 hour a week childcare.

Economically speaking I'd say $60k for the first 7 years, $40k thereafter.

The SAHMs I know don't clean their own houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then how much does a working mom who is also primary parent provide? I do food cooking cleaning laundry drop offs night wakes baths organizing and playing, schedule everything and plan. And I am the main breadwinner. So my services would be another $22 per hour for all that work, plus my salary.

It's an asinine little game. It's worth what you are willing to exchange for it.

+1 Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add in college counseling and putting them on path to Ivy. I would add another $75 K.

Taking care of kids mental and physical health - maybe $100 an hour. So, 365 days * $100

Never mind - too expensive!

Yeah, because WOHPs don't counsel their kids on college, or tend to their mental and physical health needs.