Stay at home parents carry out labour worth nearly €60,000 a year on average, a new study has claimed. 

Royal London Ireland estimated that if a family paid someone to work as a childcare provider, cook and taxi driver for them instead of having one parent stay at home, it would cost €57,000. 

The survey also found that almost 90% underestimate how much free labour stay at home parents carry out. 

A Dad and his baby son. Picture by: Alamy.com

Royal London Ireland's Karen O'Flaherty said the study is yet more proof that domestic work is not given the recognition it deserves. 

“I just don’t think people consider what jobs and day-to-day jobs stay at home parents do,” she said. 

“89% of adults underestimated the financial value of the stay at home parent and there was a significant 43% gap between what people think homemakers economic contribution is versus the likely cost of having someone carry out those day-to-day jobs.” 

Similar research was carried out in 2015 and the value of the labour carried out by stay at home parents has risen by €15,000 since then.

Main image: A mother and a child. Picture by: Yuri Arcurs / Alamy.