HOW MUCH A WIFE IS WORTH IN MONEY

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 2

HOW MUCH A WIFE IS WORTH IN MONEY

<Bti lAN BALL, in the London “Dailv Telegraph.">

Earlier this year, a group of otherwise harmless economists of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York touched off a flurry of new skirmishes in the battle of the sexes by computing the monetary worth of the dozens of different skills of the average housewife.

After studying how much time the typical mother spent each weeek cooking, cleaning, nursing the children, fixing clogged drains, doing the laundry, acting as chauffeuse for husband and children and so on, the bank’s economist worked out what these services would be worth if paid for at the current hourly rates.

They concluded that any American husband who decided to put his wife on a salaried basis would have to pay her at least £56 18s 6d a week.

Much to the chagrin of the American male, the bank publicised the findings of its economists by incorporating the figures in large window displays and shipping them off to all its branches. Male reaction was immediate — and generally unfavourable. Now, to give the men equal status, as it were, the economists have completed a similar study to determine what “a man around the house” is worth.

They found that the average man spends exactly 24 hours on household chores out of his 39 hours of “leisure” each week (left after deducting time for his job, sleeping, and eating). It would cost £lB 4s Id

a week they calculated, to have the same services done otherwise (cheerlessly, perhaps, by a tradesman). Here is a breakdown of the value of a husband’s chores (converted from dollars) for an average week: