Read the text. The £ 349 housewife How her weekly pay slip would add up £ hr £ week Nanny 17.9 hrs £ 5.50

The £ 349 housewife

How her weekly pay slip would add up…
	£ hr	£ week
Nanny	17.9 hrs	£ 5.50	£ 105.95
Cook	12.2 hrs	£ 5.35	£ 65.27
Cleaner	12.2 hrs	£ 5.35	£ 65.27
Laundress	9.3 hrs	£ 3.80	£ 35.34
Shopper	6.4 hrs	£ 3.80	£ 24.32
Dishwasher	5.7 hrs	£ 3.80	£ 21.66
Driver	2.6 hrs	£ 4.50	£ 11.70
Gardener	1.4 hrs	£ 5.90	£ 8.26
Seamstress	1.7 hrs	£ 3.60	£ 6.12
Other tasks	1.3 hrs	£ 4.00	£ 5.20
Total 70.7 hrs £ 349.09

As nanny, cook, cleaner, laundress, shopper, dishwasher, driver, gardener, and seamstress, she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost £ 349, it was revealed yesterday.

At over £18,000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 per sent of the population, including train drivers, firemen, prison offices, and social workers.

Looking after a youngster less than a year old takes a housewife into an even higher pay league. According to a survey, she deserves £457 a week-at nearly £ 24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists.

Researchers put a price on each chore, and then calculated how long the average person takes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week on domestic duties- with looking after the children (17.9 hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.3 hours each0 the most time-consuming.

A wife with a part-time job still works an average of 59 hours a week at home. Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace.

The good news is that these hours decline sharply as children get older. While the average mother with a child under one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten.

Mother-of-four Karen Tudor-Williams, from Reading, said last night: “Wages aren’t practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps through the tax system. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t appreciate this. They say they do the DIY jobs, but my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans the toilet- that’s the real test.”

Single parent Anne Neale from North-west London said: “The Government should pay for women wages. It’s the husband’s employer who benefits from the work that women do at home.”

Mark these sentences true(+), false(-) or don’t know (?):

1. The average housewife works nearly 71 hours a week. ____ 2. Seventy per cent of the working population earn £18,000 a year. ____ 3. Train drivers earn the same as prison offices.____ 4. Teachers earn about £ 24,000 a year. ____ 5. Looking after children takes up most time._____ 6. Wives with jobs spend more time on housework than on their work.____ 7. The average mother with a child under one works 95 hours a week.____ 8. Karen Tudor-Williams thinks that the government should pay women wages._____ 9. Her husband helps with a lot of the housework._____ 10. Anne Neale thinks that husbands’ employers should pay housewives.

Answer these questions:

1. How do you feel about the situation in the text? 2. Do you think the situation is similar in your country? 3. Do you agree with Karen and Anne? What, if anything, should be done about the situation?

Дата добавления: 2015-07-16