Domestic worth of wives —and husbands

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32460, 21 November 1970, Page 12

Domestic worth of wives —and husbands

(By VICTOR ANDERSON)

Ernest Hemingway was once said to have got into rather a rambling discussion with Scott Fitzgerald about the life and times of the rich, coming to the brilliant conclusion “the rich are different from the rest of us.”

“Yes,” said Scott Fitzgerald, “they’ve got more money.” The mark of the really rich today is that they can still afford to keep permanent servants. The servants are important not merely for status or as symbols or even for the work they do, but for the fact that they allow the rich leisure. All the rest of us spend our spare time mostly working and many a breadwinner after a weekend on his feet in the domestic round is glad to get back to the comfort of his office chair on Monday. But spare a thought for his wife, especially if she too goes out to work: her work is never done. Indeed, doctors say that domestic fatigue despite all that labour-saving machinery is one of the biggest dangers today. Too many people are driving themselves to do too much at home. Their grandfathers who could employ one servant on £5OO a year income, two on £750 and three or more on £lOOO would have been ' astonished at the amount of unpaid work done. But supposing that work had to be paid for at going rates? It soon becomes apparent that a wife is rewarded pretty meagrely. Typical mother In 1965 a group of economists working for a New York bank computed the average housewife’s skills in money terms. They studied how much the typical mother spent each week on her endless domestic chores, then worked out what those services would be worth if paid for at the then 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 159 dollars and 39 cents (£56 18s 6d at the then exchange rate) a week. Husbands took a poor view when these findings were widely publicised so to give the men an equal status, as it were, the economists did similar sums for husbands, based on the finding that the average man spent exactly 24 hours a week on household Chores out of his shrinking 39 hours of

“leisure” (yes, time was allowed him to work outside, to sleep and to eat). It would cost 51 dollars (then £lB 4s Id) a week to have the same services done by tradesmen. Let us update this in British terms and see what the weekly value of . a British husband is, his wife classing him as a casual labourer and odd-job man. He does a bit of cooking (even if it is only boiling the eggs) and, if well-trained, may make the family breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays. Gardening, of course, is a prime interest and gar-

deners are getting more expensive today. He may even do an evening’s babysitting to let his wife see her friends or a film. He is the principal chauffeur, of course, especially on holiday and does car cleaning and maintenance. Doesn’t everyone complain how expensive motoring is now? A professional escort might well charge £1 5s an hour for an evening’s entertainment, so the equivalent of this item must be included. A dream-husband’s weekly budget now works out like this:

In other words, the ideal husband, apron at the ready, has hypothetically earned more than many a factory worker does. But he need not preen himself except by making it clear to his wife that he is doing all this part-

time. Wives are inevitably more equal than husbands on this scale. Here are some of the costings made of a typical wife (and mother of two) worked out on a monthly basis with the equivalent rates-for-the-job: „ £ s. d.

So she is certainly a treasure worth an average £42 4s 6d a week. But is that her housekeeping allowance, even without food and running expenditure? Hardly. Indeed, by these scales most husbands however much work they do themselves — are virtually employers of sweated labour. The cannyminded among them can be glad that they made such an excellent investment. Nevertheless, the eagerness of women to get married, at younger and younger ages, shows no sign of diminishing. The famous old story about the temporarily interrupted

wedding service turned on a man, not a woman. You will remember how when the minister asked “... for richer for poorer?” it was the bridegroom who asked, “you mean I have a choice?” In fact, some calculating female once complained a bit before the strident Women’s Liberation thing that whereas clothes, cosmetics and accoutrements cost a girl £157 in her courtship days (i.e. to get a man to marry her), a young man could kit himself out for only £69. Isn’t it always a case of “the woman pays”?

Relief Cook—3 hours at 7s an hour £ 1 s. d. 1 0 Gardener—5 hours at 8s an hour 2 0 0 Odd Job Man —4 hours at 7s 6d an hour 1 10 0 Accountant—J hour at 14s an hour 7 0 Baby-Sitter—4 hours at 6s an hour 1 4 0 Chauffeur—8 hours at £1 2s 6d an hour 9 0 0 Escort—4 hours at £1 5s per hour .. 5 0 0 Messenger and other jobs, say 3 0 0 Total £23 2 0

Cook—four weeks at £15 60 0 0 Help—12 hours a month at 6s 3 12 0 Kitchen and vegetable maid —14 hours at 5s 6d 6 12 0 Housemaid—50 hours at 6s 15 0 0 Taxi-driver—40 trips at 7s 6d 15 0 0 Cashier—four hours at 7s 1 8 0 Private secretary—10 hours at 12s .. 6 0 0 Jobbing gardener—16 hours at 7s 5 12 0 Painting and decorating (one room) .. 15 0 0 Knitting operative (one large sweater) . 6 0 0 Dressmaker (one frock, one blouse). .. 8 0 0 Tutor to children—10 hours at 12s 6d . > 6 5 0 Kennel maid 1 5 0 Total £168 18 0