Dads Would Earn $24K for Household Duties

The annual Fathers’ Day Index, from insurance information provider Insure.com, uses a list of common household tasks and average wages for those duties from data about matching occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to measure the value of fathers’ household duties. The figure does not include any salary a father might earn from a job outside the house, nor does it include parenting and household duties that full-time stay-at-home dads perform.

Fathers are enjoying their highest economic value since the index began:

• 2014: $24,103
• 2013: $23,344
• 2012: $20,248
• 2011: $20,415

Doing family finances, repairing pipes, coaching a team and helping with homework are all tasks with the highest hourly wages in the index. 

A survey from Insure.com finds dinner is the number one gift pick among fathers this year. Fathers could choose more than one gift from a list of 18 choices and picked:

• Dinner at the town’s best restaurant (31%);
• A weekend getaway with the whole family (27%);
• Electronics (26%);
• Tickets to a show or sporting event (26%);
• A weekend getaway with the wife (25%); and
• Power tools (21%).

The survey also found that fathers do not want a remodeled room for Fathers’ Day, selected by only 5%, or books, chosen by 8%.

Based on responses to other questions, fathers want to spend Father’s Day with the whole family (57%) and receive a homemade card (22%) or homemade artwork (19%).

For data about fathers’ gift choices and ways to spend the day, Insure.com commissioned a survey of 999 married men with children younger than 18 living at home. The survey was conducted in April.