Maternal Wage Calculations

word problems for the weary

She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Proverbs 31:27

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.

Proverbs 31:25

If the exploitation of women and women's economic dependence on men is built on this unpaid labour, the first thing we have to do is to refuse this unpaid labour.

Silvia Federici

Please read the following carefully and answer the questions. Check your work before submitting. DO NOT PEEK AT ANSWER KEY BELOW.

1. The father takes the severely disabled young adult daughter to his home 2 days a week or less for 12 months. Let’s say 2 for convenience (a mother is writing this and mothers are generally accommodating, maybe too much so). The mother has the daughter for the other 5 days a week. Let’s say there are 30 days in a month (some have 31 but see parenthetical above about accomodation) and 12 months in a year. How many days in a year does the father have the daughter and how many does the mother have the daughter?

2. Using the numbers you’ve obtained above, calculate how many hours in a year the father has the daughter and how many hours in a year the mother has the daughter.

3. Childcare averages approximately $25 an hour, not counting taxes and social security which will go uncounted for purposes of simplicity (and accomodation, see above). How much will the father make in a year at this wage? How much will the mother make a year at this wage? Assume that one day of childcare is 24 hours.

4. The father decides that when he can’t take the daughter, he will not pay for childcare on those days as The less money I send to you the better, I just wasted it. When she informs the father that her part time job is important, too, and that she can’t just change the childcare options for their daughter at his whim (nice word, right?), she is told this (all spelling and punctuation is accurate): Correction: you just wast it Your job doesn’t pay me, my job pays you. The mother accommodates and finds childcare for the days he’s responsible or takes unpaid days off work to do so. Decide in three sentences or less whether the mother or the father is being unreasonable. Be sure to provide proof for your claim.

5. If the father gives the mother roughly $1750 a month in child support which includes his half of all expenses (medicines, supplies, food, gas, transportation, health insurance, childcare), and the mother pays a childcare worker $25/hour for 25 hours a week, how much is left over for other expenses? How many hours is the mother working for free? Is the father getting a good deal? Is the mother? Explain in complete sentences.

EXTRA POINTS: If the mother pays a childcare worker approximately 25 hours a week at $25 an hour so that she can work a part-time job, how many other hours in the day is she working (remember there are 24 hours in a day and this job is a 24 hour a day job)? Also take into account the 48 hours that the father has the child. How many hours is this in a month? In a year? How much is the mother making an hour to take care of the child?

ANSWER KEY

1. Father: 96 days. Mother: 269

2. Father: 2,304 hours. Mother: 6,456 hours

3. Father: $55,296. Mother: $154,954.

4. Answers will vary.

5. $0 is left over for other expenses.

   * Please note that all numbers and persons mentioned are fiction.