The Value of the
Stay-at-Home Parent in 2024
Often overlooked and undervalued, we quantify the real-world value of stay-at-home parents.
Often overlooked and undervalued, we quantify the real-world value of stay-at-home parents.
At Beike Biotechnology we’ve seen thousands of stay-at-home parents devoting their lives to their high-needs children. Being a stay-at-home parent, devoting your time to the care of the family is a uniquely challenging commitment that requires tremendous physical and emotional effort. And yet it’s a role where the value of the work done is often not acknowledged or even measured. To understand the immense value stay-at-home parents have in homes around the world, we set out to quantify the time they spend on their tasks each month, and reveal what the cost of outsourcing them for the duration of a child’s upbringing would be.
To carry out the study, we analysed the full range of household tasks, including cleaning, shopping, cooking and laundry, in addition to childcare tasks such as transportation, emotional support, tutoring and planning.
When determining the time stay-at-home parents spend on each task, we adjusted the number of hours based on the size of the family to reflect that a parent with four children has more chores than a parent with one child. At the same time, we accounted for the fact that there are often synergies when looking after multiple children - for example with cooking or transportation. We also incorporated seasonal trends into the time calculations to reflect that a stay-at-home parent’s workload changes when children are on school holidays, for example.
We then calculated what the overall cost of outsourcing the tasks performed by stay-at-home parents would be over the course of a child’s upbringing. We assumed a 20-year timeline per child and imagined any additional children were born at two-year intervals thereafter. A stay-at-home parent with four children was therefore calculated to work for 26 years.
Below you can select from four options to see the time stay-at-home parents with different numbers of children spend on parenting tasks each month, and what the value of outsourcing their work would be throughout their children’s upbringing in 80 global cities. You can filter each column from highest to lowest and vice versa by clicking on the icons. To find out how each metric was calculated, please refer to the methodology at the bottom of the page.
"The tables below reveal the time stay-at-home parents with four children spend on their duties each month, and the cost of outsourcing these tasks in different cities around the world. All costs shown are in Euros."
The Value of the Stay-at-Home Parent study determines the amount of time stay-at-home parents dedicate to their duties and reveals what the total long-term cost of outsourcing these tasks for the duration of their children’s upbringing would be. The study analyses 80 global cities according to a range of diverse parental and household tasks to create a final ranking that shows the local cost of outsourcing these tasks.
To carry out the study, a general time use model was developed that estimates the time that a stay-at-home parent spends on household chores each month. To do this, OECD time use data was utilised as well as time estimations available from other data providers.
The time use model was adjusted to capture seasonal trends, for example summer holidays when transport and tutoring needs decrease. The data was modelled for one child, two children, three children and four children and applied throughout their entire childhood and adolescence using the following assumptions:
Each child spends 20-years at their family home.
There is a two year gap between each child being born. For the parent, the duration of household related work increases as follows: a 20-year period for parents with one child; a 22-year period for parents with two children; a 24-year period for parents with three children; a 26-year period for parents with four children.
A stay-at-home parent does not receive support from a partner or relative. We assume this in order to show the total hours of household duties per month.
Parents behave the same everywhere around the world. While customs vary from country to country, a global middle-class was presupposed that shares a similar lifestyle and has a similar schedule. An average of OECD data was calculated to achieve this.
A time use model was then developed for each chore based on the following assumptions:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on cleaning chores each month. The estimate is based on the following assumptions:
The time spent cleaning depends on the size of the home. Data from various statistical providers in the US and Europe was used to calculate:
| One Child | Two children | Three children | Four children | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One bedroom | 7.28% | 2.72% | - | - |
| Two bedroom | 33.02% | 22.98% | 16.42% | - |
| Three bedroom | 25.97% | 30.91% | 27.21% | 25.58% |
| Four bedroom | 18.15% | 24.05% | 30.92% | 37.01% |
| Five bedroom | 15.58% | 19.34% | 29.99% | 27.64% |
The data was also weighted with social housing size guidelines to paint a more comprehensive and socially inclusive picture.
It is assumed that a family stays in its home even when some of the children have moved out. Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on shopping each month. The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on cooking and preparing meals each month. The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on laundry chores each month. The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on transportation tasks each month. All daily transportation is included, including to nursery school, school and leisure activities like football training. The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on psychological and emotional care each month. Emotional support includes interactions a stay-at-home parent typically engages in on a daily basis (e.g. talking about the day or a child’s problems, reading a book together, playing games). The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on tutoring their children each month. The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The amount of time a stay-at-home parent spends on household administration tasks each month. Household administration includes all family-related planning activities, including calling the doctor, creating shopping lists and arranging children’s activities. The time model estimate relies on the following assumptions:
Based on these assumptions, the following time use model was used:
The service rates illustrate how much a family would spend if they outsourced the household and childcare tasks to external providers in each city for the duration of a child’s upbringing.
With the exception of emotional support, we assume that many of these tasks can be handled adequately by non-professional generalists like nannies. The rates were used to calculate the Total Adjusted Cost over the course of each childhood. All rates are expressed in Euro. Currency conversion is correct as of the average conversion rate of August 2021.
In order to optimise the quality of the rates data, we researched services in the following major cities: Melbourne (Australia), Vienna (Austria), Toronto (Canada), Paris (France), Berlin (Germany), Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Zurich (Switzerland), London (UK), New York (USA).
The average rate of a cleaning person in each city.
The average rate of a nanny in each city.
The average rate of a nanny in each city.
The average rate of a cleaning person in each city.
The average rate of a nanny in each city.
The average rate of a nanny in each city for most of the allocated time. In addition, as psychological and emotional wellbeing is vital for children, a professional psychologist was included for four of the hours allocated each month.
The average rate of a tutor in each city.
The average rate of a nanny in each city.
