The happiest job in the UK?
Our latest study found only one in seven homemakers are dissatisfied in their role with the most significant factors contributing to their high satisfaction levels being able to spend time with their children, low-stress levels and flexible working hours.
However, the hours are much longer than others expect with homemakers working 66 hours a week on average, with tasks like childcare, cooking and cleaning taking up the majority of their time.
The Office for National Statistics values the work of a homemaker at £38,162 per year, making them crucial to both the household [1].
The importance of homemakers is underlined by the fact that if they were to do their normal household tasks because of an accident or illness, it would take less than 6 days for their homes to fall into disarray. A fifth of homes with a housewife or househusband would have to pay for help like a cleaner or childminder and over half would have to dip into their savings to do so.
On average, families would only be able to manage to pay for help for just 18 days before they ran out of savings or had to borrow money. Despite this, only 7% of homemakers are covered by an income protection policy, which would provide a financial safety net that would enable them to pay for help if they were unable to do their normal tasks due to illness.
[1] Thea J Thomas, Gerard Carolan, 2016. Household satellite accounts: 2005 to 2014, Office for National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/householdsatelliteaccounts2011to2014