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Were you outraged by the news stories that revealed that Manhattan housewives get a performance bonus? Well, you shouldn’t be. Here’s why.
The media has been all a-flutter since it emerged that certain Manhattan housewives get a “performance bonus” for how well they carry out their wifely duties. Wednesday Martin, a resident of the Upper East Side, discovered that some of her housewife neighbours receive bonuses for how well they manage the household budget or how well their children do in school.
Wednesday says that she believes these bonuses are evidence of a sex-segregated society where women are dependent and disempowered, and judging by the resulting global outrage, the world agrees.
A mother’s work has real value
While giving performance bonuses to housewives can certainly be seen as an act of disempowerment, there is another way to look at it. A recent South African study revealed that the services performed by a housewife could total up to R600 000 a year if professionals were contracted to carry them out instead.
For example, without a member of the household doing kids’ school lifts, the family would have to fork out around R4 000 per month for a lift service. Helping children with homework would cost R2 720 a month. Shopping and admin carried out by a concierge would cost around R250 an hour – easily amounting to R10 000 a month for two hours a day.
It’s important to be aware that looking after children and a household and often finances and other admin are all activities that have a great deal of value.
What a stay-at-home mother loses
When a woman chooses to stay at home to look after her children, there are a number of things that she is giving up. For example, the loss of income, annual raises and a pension fund contribution should all be taken into account. And if she were to re-enter the job market after five or ten years, she would have lost out on personal and career development, as well as networking opportunities during that time.
The choice to be a stay-at-home mom should not be taken lightly and both partners should acknowledge that her financial loss is a meaningful one. Of course, she is benefiting in other ways from having the opportunity to stay home and be with her children during the precious fleeting years of their childhood. But it is a mistake to call this privilege cushy or disempowered – as critics of the Manhattan housewife bonus have suggested.
Last word
When the time comes for a couple to have the discussion about whether a parent should scale back their career to raise the children (because it can just as easily be the male partner), they should take into account the value of the work being done at home and the cost of the losses of whichever partner takes on that responsibility.
We’re not necessarily suggesting that a woman should be remunerated directly for her efforts in keeping the household running smoothly, but it’s worth remembering that her contribution is valuable. Whether this value is recognised with a monthly “salary”, a Manhattan-sized bonus or a huge amount of gratitude and support should be entirely up to her and her partner.
Article by 1Life Insurance
