How Much Are Dads Worth?

Dads are officially in flux. And the ongoing changes and shifts in what's considered masculine is a great conversation to be having.

In the 1950s, a "good dad" was one who brought home the bacon and had his Stepford wife fry it up. Sure maybe he doled out some discipline every now and again when mom uttered the "Just wait til your father gets home!" line, but for the most part work and being a breadwinner was the benchmark of a good dad. But now? Well, things are much different.

Women are the breadwinners in 4 out of 10 families. The number of stay-at-home dads has doubled in the last 25 years. And even working dads are making work/life balance a priority by putting things like flexible scheduling, telecommuting, and paternity leave high on the scale of importance right up there with salary.

And guess what? That shift shows up in the results of our annual Father's Day "Dad Salary" survey.

What is it? Well, it's a lighthearted way to show how much work dads do and how much they'd be paid if they were actually cut a check for their work. We give stay-at-home and working dads a list of jobs to choose from, and they tell us how many hours they spend every week performing them. Then we apply our salary data to those jobs and poof -- we come up with the dad salary. But first, let's look at the jobs dads do most.

TOP 10 DAD JOBS (SAHDs/WORKING DADS)

1. Daycare Center Teacher: 9.6 hours (3.1 working dads)
2. Computer Operator: 8.8 hours (5.4 working dads)
3. Cook: 8.0 hours (2.9 working dads)
4. Maintenance Worker: 6.6 hours (4.3 working dads)
5. Facilities Manager: 5.4 hours (2.8 working dads)
6. Van Driver: 4.9 hours (3.3 working dads)
7. Groundskeeper: 4.4 hours (2.8 working dads)
8. CEO: 4.2 hours (3.8 working dads)
9. Laundry Operator: 4.1 hours (1.5 working dads)
10. Psychologist: 3.7 hours (2.4 working dads)

In total, stay-at-home dads work 59.7 hours a week on household and childcare related tasks. When considering base pay and overtime, they would earn $71,463 per year.

Working dads spend 32.3 hours a week on these chores, and would earn $37,064 per year (in addition to whatever salary they earn in their day jobs).

This year, stay-at-home dads saw a sharp increase in both hours worked and salary earned. Last year, at-home dads logged 55.7 hours and a $67,203 per year salary (increases of 7% and 6% respectively). However, working dads actually spent less time on these chores in 2014. Last year they spent 33.7 hours for a salary of $38,231, which means working dads felt a 3% decrease this year.

Yet both SAHDs and working dads pale in comparison to the numbers reported by moms.

Stay-at-home moms claim to work a whopping 96.5 hours a week, with working moms at 59.4 hours. Which means working moms claim to do the same amount of childcare and household work as full-time stay-at-home dads. All of the survey numbers are self-reported by survey participants.

Regardless of the potential inflation of numbers, it's worth noting that dads are embracing fatherhood at all levels and even though their value can't truly be quantified, Salary.com wants dads to know we appreciate all of their hard work. If you'd like to check your own dad salary or even send a personalized Father's Day check, you can click here. Also, feel free to share our infographics below for stay-at-home and working fathers.

Happy Father's Day!

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