Does more money equal less housework?

Yesterday a friend pointed out an article in the Seattle PI titled, Higher pay on job linked to drop in chores at home. Here is what they found:

A recent University of Massachusetts-Amherst study finds married women do about one less hour of housework per week for every $7,500 they earn as full-time workers outside the home, regardless of the husband’s income.

Of course no one wanted to speculate as to why this is. One reason may be that a busy workload means less time at home, so you do less housework period. My thought is that the more you make, the more you can free up that dreaded “second shift” by hiring help. When you make great money, you can hire the housecleaner etc. No matter the exact reasons, one thing is clear: it is difficult to truly earn your worth if you have heavy domestic responsibilities at home. Something has to give. I stopped dusting my baseboards long ago. Then the question became: does the dust accumulate or do I hire that housekeeper?

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