I am a single mother by choice, blessed with my daughter Raphaela, conceived and born in Jerusalem in October 2009. Raising a happy and healthy child; balancing work, parenthood and relationships; with the additional challenge of doing it on my own, in Israel.
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Value of an Hour
Why is it that I pay my house cleaner 40 NIS per hour, and I pay my baby sitters 30 NIS per hour? Surely my child is more valuable to me than my material posessions?!
are you talking about a one on one babysitter? taking care of kids is a more fun than cleaning houses. The question should be: RR is so much fun, shouldn't the baby sitter pay me to spend time w/my daughter?
Exactly! My point is that the activities and professions (eg teachers, one-on-one baby sitters) that should be given extra respect and paid according to their value to society are not, unfortunately. @s5, I don't need to overpay my baby sitter, I simply think that it's absurd
@s5: Yes, in an ideal world where I am not a single mother with a limited income, I would pay my baby sitter 50 NIS, or 100 NIS per hour. The "going rate" is 30 NIS per hour, so I am certainly not cheating her out of her salary. I only wish that there was some way that society as a whole could realign its priorities. As KGM said, why do professional athletes and actors get paid a King's Ransom, essentially for entertaining us, when a good teacher can literally change the world, one child at a time?
Well, I suppose exactely that is the reason: because baby sitters are employed by private households who do not want to spend more money on them.
Same goes for teachers.
An athlete or artist can entertain thousands, millions of persons at the same time. A teacher is limited to 25 students. I suppose that makes the difference.
By the way: I was always annoyed at the fact that opera singers, earn much less than pop musicians, although they have to study a lot more and their performance is at a higher artistic level.
In the entertainment business, there is a kind a "lotto effect". You can, by a combination of luck and know-how, gain the "million dollar price", but most of them don't. As an average, atheletes and artists have a lower income than others who have the same skill level.
8 comments:
Take a babysitter for 50 nis
are you talking about a one on one babysitter? taking care of kids is a more fun than cleaning houses. The question should be: RR is so much fun, shouldn't the baby sitter pay me to spend time w/my daughter?
Exactly! My point is that the activities and professions (eg teachers, one-on-one baby sitters) that should be given extra respect and paid according to their value to society are not, unfortunately.
@s5, I don't need to overpay my baby sitter, I simply think that it's absurd
My kids take 20 NIS when they babysit
the question really should be-why do teachers and doctors make less than movie stars and athletes?
Why do you say "overpay"?
You just said they were underpaid. So you could be the first to make a change... See what I mean?
@s5: Yes, in an ideal world where I am not a single mother with a limited income, I would pay my baby sitter 50 NIS, or 100 NIS per hour. The "going rate" is 30 NIS per hour, so I am certainly not cheating her out of her salary. I only wish that there was some way that society as a whole could realign its priorities. As KGM said, why do professional athletes and actors get paid a King's Ransom, essentially for entertaining us, when a good teacher can literally change the world, one child at a time?
Well, I suppose exactely that is the reason: because baby sitters are employed by private households who do not want to spend more money on them.
Same goes for teachers.
An athlete or artist can entertain thousands, millions of persons at the same time. A teacher is limited to 25 students. I suppose that makes the difference.
By the way: I was always annoyed at the fact that opera singers, earn much less than pop musicians, although they have to study a lot more and their performance is at a higher artistic level.
In the entertainment business, there is a kind a "lotto effect". You can, by a combination of luck and know-how, gain the "million dollar price", but most of them don't. As an average, atheletes and artists have a lower income than others who have the same skill level.
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