“The average expected salary of €28,000 is significantly lower than the close to €49,000 we estimate.”
The jobs of an Irish stay-at-home parent have been calculated to be worth just under €50,000, according to new data from Royal London.
According to the survey, most Irish people would expect the average salary of a stay-at-home parent to come in at around €28,000 if they were to be paid.
However, this is a “gross undervaluation” of the estimated €49,000 it would cost to replace the tasks completed by stay-at-home mothers and fathers each day.
A survey of 1,000 people throughout the country, commissioned by Royal London and conducted by iReach, revealed how multiple lockdowns since the pandemic began have changed people’s opinions on the role of parents who stay at home, with 42% of people saying that they believe the role is even more valuable than they had previously thought.
Respondents were asked how much they believe it would cost to employ someone to perform the duties of a stay-at-home parent.
Royal London then compared the financial value perceived by the survey respondents (€28,000) with their own calculations drawn from pay-scale data, with calculations suggesting that in reality, the figure could be closer to €49,000.
Included in the calculations were some of the ‘top jobs’ parents carry out on a weekly basis such as cooking, cleaning, driving children to their various activities and so on, and the average workplace costs associated with these duties.
| Jobs | Average cost per hour (€) | Estimated hours per week | Total € |
| Childcare Provider | 11.74 | 30 | 352.20 |
| Cleaner | 10.57 | 8 | 84.56 |
| General Cook | 10.48 | 15 | 157.20 |
| Teaching Assistant | 12.00 | 5 | 60.00 |
| Handyman/woman | 15.58 | 4 | 62.32 |
| Gardener | 14.19 | 1 | 14.19 |
| Taxi Driver | (Estimated average fare) €21* | (Estimate number of trips) 10 | 210.00 |
| Total cost per week | 940.47 | ||
| Total cost per year (52 weeks) | 48,904.44 |
Karen Gallagher, Interim Head of Proposition at Royal London said they “revisit this question yearly and it seems people continue to underestimate how much it would cost to employ someone to do all the jobs a stay-at-home parent does.”
“Interestingly, while 19% of women believed the cost to be more than €40,000, just 12% of men and 4% of 18–24-year-olds felt the same.”
Gallagher added that there is a significant disparity between people’s perception and the financial reality in terms of placing a cost on typical parenting duties.
“The average expected salary of €28,000 is significantly lower than the close to €49,000 we estimate as the economic cost in 2021, and lower again than the €48,946 reported by the CSO2 as the average earnings of a person in full-time employment during 2019,” she said.
2016 Census data determined that there were approximately 454,700 people in Ireland whose principal status was looking after the home or family.
Of those people, the vast majority were women (98%) although the number of men in this role nearly doubled in the 10 years up to 2016, rising from 4,900 to 9,200.
“This survey highlights that while theoretically, people might have developed a greater understanding and appreciation of the role of stay-at-home parents, somewhat understandably, most have not fully reflected on the financial costs of this “job”,” Gallagher continued.
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