88 per cent of women believe Irish society undervalues or under supports stay-at-home parents

A new survey has found that 88 per cent of women believe Irish society either undervalues or under-supports the role of stay-at-home parents.

This is according to findings from the life and pensions provider, Royal London Ireland (RLI), which was conducted by market research agency iReach earlier this year.

As part of the survey, 1,000 participants in Ireland sought to understand people’s perception of the value of stay-at-home parents, and revealed that 93 per cent of people underestimate the financial value of the stay-at-home parent.

RLI compared these perceptions with their own research into the monetary value of the homemaker. 

According to RLI's calculations, which are based on real-world wage data, the cost to employ someone to do the 'duties' performed by stay-at-home mams and dads would be an estimated €53,480 per annum. Despite this, survey participants estimated the potential 'salary' of the stay-at-home parent at an average of €28,460 per year.

Commenting on the findings, Liz Murray, Kildare Broker Consultant with RLI  said: "While the role of the stay-at-home parent could be described as 'priceless,' it is interesting to gauge the public’s perception of its value through our annual survey.

"It seems people continue to undervalue the role, pitching it at €28,460, which is similar to last year’s estimate by survey respondents of approximately €28,000," she added.

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KEY FINDINGS

Highlights from the Royal London Ireland Stay-at-home Parent Survey included:

• 61 per cent of survey respondents believe people in Ireland value the role of the stay-at-home parent.
• 43 per cent of respondents believe most people value the role of the stay-at-home parent, but society as a whole doesn’t provide enough support to those in this position.
• 39 per cent of people say Irish society doesn’t put enough value on the role of homemaker.
• More women (88 per cent) than men (75 per cent) believe that the role of the stay-at-home parent is either under-appreciated or under-supported by society.
• People estimated the value of the stay-at-home parent’s salary to be on average €24,460.
• 31 per cent of people estimated the stay-at-home parent’s ‘salary’ to be €20,000 or less.
• Only 12 per cent estimated it to be between €40,000 - €50,000, and just 8% of people estimated it to be more than €50,000.

Ms. Murray elaborated: "While 18 per cent of people believe the role of the stay-at-home parent is held in high esteem by Irish society, it’s interesting to see that a large majority believe homemakers are not supported enough or valued by society.

"What is somewhat less surprising, given that this role is predominantly filled by females, is that more women than men (88 per cent vs 75 per cent) believe that Irish society doesn’t support or value the contributions of stay-at-home parents.

"This is despite the number of stay-at-home dads more than doubling in the 10 years from 2009 to 2019, rising from 7,000 to 19,900."

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COSTS

As an annual exercise, RLI said that it considered and compiled a list of duties usually carried out by stay-at-home parents, before researching the cost of employing someone to do these jobs.

The duties listed are ones that parents carry out on a weekly basis such as cooking, cleaning, driving children to their various activities and so on.

The group's calculations reveal that the annual cost to employ someone to do the household jobs usually completed by a stay-at-home parent would be an estimated €53,480.

Ms. Murray explained: "While the duties and responsibilities that fall upon stay-at-home parents will vary from family to family, we have run some calculations of how much it would cost to replace someone in this role. 

"Our figures reveal that it could cost approximately €53,000, if not more, per year, and when we asked our survey respondents how much they think it would cost to employ someone to perform the duties of a stay-at-home parent, most under-estimated it, by thousands."

According to the survey, the majority of people (81 per cent) estimated the stay-at-home parent’s 'salary' to be €40,000 or less, while 12 per cent of people estimated it to be between €40,000 - €50,000, and just 8 per cent of people estimated it to be €50,000 or more.

 "It’s understandable that, without doing the calculations, many people may not accurately estimate what the cost would be to replace the stay-at-home parent. What is surprising, is just how much they undervalue it by." Ms Murray added.