Homemaker

Homemaker - 


 * A homemaker is the person in a family unit who has specialized in the development of her (or his) ability to produce the special goods and services produced within the household of the family. Normally, all family members, after reaching a minimum age, produce some household services in the form of performing some of the unskilled tasks required for maintaining a household such as cleaning, removing trash, and so forth.  The non-homemaker adult member of the family may also supply some labor market skills in the form of repairs of home appliances or special investment abilities, but these skills are derivative from the individual’s labor market employment.  The homemaker provides supervisory management for the family production process, takes primary responsibility in child rearing activities, and may play an important role in supporting her (his) spouse in the spouse’s labor market employment. A homemaker may be engaged only in homemaking, or also in full-time labor market employment in addition to homemaking responsibilities.  If a homemaker has full-time employment in the labor market, the position she (he) has taken is often at an earnings rate below her earnings capacity, both in the short run and in the long run. In such cases, the usual tradeoff for acceptance of lower wages is greater ability to be responsive to special family needs, such as sick children, elderly parents and special tasks in support of the family’s primary wage earner spouse.  See Gary Becker, A Treatise on the Family, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1981.


 * From: http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/artscience/economics/ForensicEconomics/definitions.html