Should housewives be paid for their work?

My wife was a stay at home mom and I used to put $500 a week in her checking account. She bought groceries and whatever else she wanted with it. We had 4 kids so our grocery bill was kind of high. If she ever needed more money for anything else, all she had to do was say something and I'd transfer the money from my business account. It wasn't like a payment for her services around the house because what's mine is hers and vice versa.
If  I were to pay her a salary, she'd get a high hourly rate for cleanliness but she'd owe me money at the end of the week for her cooking. That woman could burn water.

I never paid my wife, because we never figured out this "yours', "Mine" and "ours" money stuff. We had one bank account, and it was in both names. When the kids grew up, and she went back to work, her money went into "OUR" bank account, just like mine did. We were married and what was mine was hers, and what was hers was mine. (Unless the kids were bad, then they were MY kids. LOL)

NO ... It's a stupid idea.
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WHO would pay them?

Their spouses?  Yeah, the government would LOVE that.  They would have to claim the same income TWICE for taxes.  Once when the spouse earned it - and a second time when they paid the housewife.

The government?  Why should the taxpayers have to pay for a service they don't use, and that doesn't benefit them?

That's like asking a man if he should get paid for being a father or for putting food on the table... what a sick time we live in!

Absolutely not!

If we paid them for the 80 hour weeks they regularly work it would break the family budget. And if we gave them a government-sponsored wage it would break the country.

But it's not just payment for hours worked. At what rate do you compensate them for the wide range of skills they need to do the job? Nah. I dips me lid to any woman who takes on that kind of a chore. They're certainly worthy of being paid big bikkies, but it ain't gonna happen.

They ARE paid...technically.

In a typcial household, where the husband works, and the wife is a stay at home mom and tends to the home .. The bank account is a joint asset .. As well as is any capital assets they purchase. Those things don't just belong to the wage earner. They own everything jointly.

Some women consider housework an important, dignified service, and not as a job to receive pay . “It’s personal,” answered one homemaker with 21 years of experience. She explains: “I’m doing something personal to benefit someone else. We live in a world in which so many things are impersonal. You don’t see the immediate good of your work. However, housework affects another in a very personal way, and the satisfaction is immediate.” Many diligent housewives agree. They view their housework as a “labor of love” for their family.