This Calculator Shows Exactly How Much You’d Earn if We Treated Parenting Like a Paid Job

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AnnaMarie Houlis4.87k
Journalist & travel blogger
May 4, 2024 at 3:20AM UTC
Every parent will tell you that parenting is work in and of itself. Could you imagine how much you'd be paid if you earned a salary for doing your job raising a child? Well, this salary calculator from Funky Pigeon will tell you!
Mind you, this calculator doesn't account for the added costs of emotional and mental labor (which, yes, takes up some serious time for some parents!). But it does tell you how much you'd earn from doing eight typical parenting tasks by looking at the wage and salary data for eight of the closest professionally equivalent jobs.
When you enter your weekly hours into the calculator, Funky Pigeon will covert them into yearly salaries for each — and then add it all up to give you a total annual pay.

All you have to do is type in your city and the number of hours you spend cooking, cleaning, driving, teaching, being a personal assistant, doing laundry, acting as a nurse and playing psychologist per week. 
Let's say, for example, that you live in New York City, and you spend the following number of hours doing the aforementioned parenting jobs:
  • Three hours cooking
  • Two hours cleaning
  • Seven hours driving
  • Five hours teaching
  • Six hours being a personal assistant
  • Two hours doing laundry
  • One hour acting as a nurse
  • Five hours playing psychologist
Given the salary for these jobs in New York City, you'd be earning about $41,121 a year as a parent! And, again, that's barring all of the emotional and mental labor you put in planning activities for your family, making mental notes and remembering important dates and details, and dealing with any family struggles.
Type in your own hours to give it a go! See for yourself just how much you'd be paid if parents earned a salary in your city.

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AnnaMarie Houlis is a feminist, a freelance journalist and an adventure aficionado with an affinity for impulsive solo travel. She spends her days writing about women’s empowerment from around the world. You can follow her work on her blog, HerReport.org, and follow her journeys on Instagram @her_report, Twitter @herreport and Facebook.

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