COMMENTARY | PRWeb reports this year's Father's Day Index, compiled by insurance.com, shows fathers are only worth about 34 percent of mothers in the home. If given monetary value according to current Bureau of Labor Statistic data, fathers would average about $20,000 for their within-the-home labor, while mothers average a whopping $60,000.
I knew the data were likely tainted by social factors. Women might be tacitly encouraged to overestimate the amount of housework they do by the ongoing debates over gender equality and the ever-present "Mommy Wars." Men might be encouraged to underestimate the amount of housework they do by traditional notions of masculinity. An exasperated mother might see a survey as an opportunity to vent, while a disgruntled father might see it as an opportunity to reassert his outdated "I don't do women's work" masculinity.
A comparison of the Mother's Day Index and Father's Day Index revealed startling differences in pay rates for similar jobs. While both were given credit for nine hours a week of driving, dads were paid $1.80 less per hour. Moms made 57 cents more per hour for helping with homework, receiving BLS credit as teachers, even though dads were given the same job credit. Dads received more pay for the identical jobs of family finances and yard work, receiving $9.82 less per hour for their family finance work than their male counterparts. These discrepancies make the whole thing seem subjective.
Many jobs were included in the Mother's Day Index that did not appear in the Father's Day Index. Moms raked in some impressive hourly rates for tasks like "finding out what the kids are up to" and "fixing up the house," each of which paid more than $20 an hour. Apparently dads don't do either of those things? And dads apparently don't "clean up" either. The biggest most glaring absence on the dad's index was the $20,000 per year moms make for their 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year of "taking care of the kids." I guess only moms take credit for that one.
Moms, I love you, but these indexes are a tad sexist against dad.
