Why I Disagree with Hiring Others to do Your Work for Less


mowing lawn

Last year I read an article in Redbook declaring that mothers should hire people to do some of their household work and errands for them. The article made the popular argument that if you can hire someone to do your housework for less than what you make doing something else, you shouldn’t waste your time with menial chores. It even took the concept a step further, suggesting that at-home mothers’ work is worth $40 per hour, so these unpaid mothers should still consider hiring out their most onerous tasks.

I cancelled my subscription to Redbook shortly after reading this brief but preposterous article. I couldn’t relate to a magazine that urged me to hire someone to do my work with money I don’t actually earn.

By trying not to alienate its readers who don’t make a regular salary, Redbook defied the laws of logic. But would it make sense for me to hire someone to do my laundry if I actually did make $40 per hour? I don’t believe it would.

Please, don’t waste your time trying to explain to me that I should spend my time doing the things that bring me the most money and that I can be most efficient by focusing on jobs that require the highest skill levels I possess. I understand the argument for hiring someone for less than what I make; I just disagree with it.

I am not against the idea of hiring someone to do work for me. In fact, I gladly pay people to cook for me the six or seven times a month I go out to eat and would do it much more often if I had a limitless income. I just don’t believe that my salary is the best criterion to use when deciding whether or not to do something myself.

Those who believe in hiring someone to work for them for less than what they make often forget that time and money are limited commodities. Each day gives you only twenty-four hours to use, and I have yet to meet anyone who can spend all that time earning money (or anyone who really wants to spend all their time working). In a sense, you are buying a portion of someone else’s time when you hire that person. You can get more of your work done that way, but your own income is still limited by how many hours you personally can spend working.

Taking the argument of “hire someone who works for less than you do” to its logical extreme, if you make $40 an hour and you hire someone to cook for $20 per hour, someone to clean for $10 per hour, and someone to do your shopping for $20 per hour, each person makes less than your hourly rate, but you are already spending more than you earn. Furthermore, even if you hire only one person, the amount of money you possess always decreases when you pay someone for goods and services. No matter how much or little you pay an employee or contractor, you have that much less to buy something else. You might see it as decreasing your own income — if you pay someone $10 per hour while making $40 per hour, you are really only making $30 per hour. (Of course, you are still paying taxes on $40 per hour, which decreases your earnings even more.)

So what criteria should you use when deciding whether to hire someone or do it yourself, if not your own salary? I will suggest these five:

How much do you hate the chore? You might actually enjoy some of your tedious jobs. I know I do. Sure, I could hire someone to do my laundry for less than what I could make doing something else, but I don’t really mind doing it. In fact, sometimes I relish the opportunity to give my mind a break and do something with my hands instead. Hiring someone to do your household chores is like any other purchase decision — would you rather spend the money you have on something else? If so, why not do the chores you don’t mind and save your cash for something you would really appreciate?

What are you skills? Consider whether you can realistically do a job to your own satisfaction. If not, hire someone with skills and training in that area. You may even have to pay more than your hourly rate to get someone who knows how to do the job right.

How much time will it take you? A professional may be able to finish a job in half the amount of time it takes you. Those who believe in asking, “Do they make less than you?” would use this fact to support their argument: If you can hire someone at $20 per hour to do a job that would take her two hours, while the same job would take you four hours (and you make $40 per hour), you are paying $40 for a job that would be worth $80 of your time.

But how likely are you to be making money during the time you would be doing that job? Many chores and home improvement jobs are done during time off. Instead of considering your salary, you should ask yourself how soon you really need to have something done and consider the value of the other activities you would be doing during that time. Is it worth it to you to spend $40 on a housecleaner so that you can spend those four hours of free time watching a game on television or $400 on a carpenter so your deck will be finished before your party? If so, consider hiring that person. If not, do it yourself.

How is your health? If you are allergic to grass, you may want to hire someone to mow your lawn. If you have a bad back, you will probably need someone to do any job that requires shoveling or heavy lifting. If your health is particularly poor, you may need your savings to hire someone to take care of you. If your health is good now, you should still consider saving that money you can use to hire someone to do a mildly annoying chore so that you can afford to pay someone to help you to do something vital when your health fails and you really need the help.

What is the intangible value of doing something yourself? You might not earn money doing your chores, but you can learn new skills, build character, or benefit someone else. I could go back to work full time and earn more than what I would pay a daycare to watch my kids, but I believe the value of raising my children myself — giving them the gift of my time and having the opportunity to teach them the values important to me — is far greater than any amount of money I could earn. At-home parenting may not be an option for you — or even something you want to do — but most types of work provide intangible benefits, some of which you may find highly valuable. Don’t fail to consider those benefits in your rush to hire out a task.

Whatever criteria you use to decide whether or not to hire someone to help you out at home, be sure to evaluate whether you really can afford to hire out the work. If you don’t have the money, consider how important the job is to you. Maybe it doesn’t even need to be done at all.

Image courtesy of Rob Ireton


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June 18th, 2008
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
wealthman
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 3:32 am

“Please, don

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Courtney
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 4:41 am

I remember reading something similar in Reader’s Digest a few years ago. I mentioned it to my father, who is a highly paid executive, so under this logic, he should pay someone to do everything.

He reiterated your argument, that you aren’t ACTUALLY spending that time working or earning more money (especially if you’re salaried). And even if that argument does hold water, as he says, “it’s not healthy to focus all your time on getting more money.” Many of us are desk jockeys and could use a little housework for exercise! Housework is generally tedious – but like meditation, I find it to be stress relieving. It’s mentally (and usually physically) easy to do and you have a nice result at the end, a fresh-smelling drawer of laundry or a neat home.

I know sometimes it seems like we need moretimemoretimemoretime to get everything done, but maybe what we really need is to slow down and mindfully do the tasks that need to be done.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
DoneToZen
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 4:59 am

@Wealthman: “Your time is limited so if you are spending time doing something that someone else can do for you less expensively, then you aren

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Lisa
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 5:09 am

Sometimes we get locked into doing something because thats the way its always been done. My mom did it, it builds character, ect. Some moms also made all the clothes for their children when I was growing up and I rarely see that now. I don’t believe that makes todays moms lazy or without character. But it has become a lost skill. I think we should challenge accepted habits to see how they benefit ourselves and our families and go from there. My grandmothers family came from alot of money and grew up with servants. She never adjusted to the loss of family money. She had never learned to clean. I think housework should be a part of parental teachings so children will know how and it can also build a sense of teamwork. But character building can come from many things, it is not limited to housework.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Done To Zen » Why hiring others to do work for less is not always right
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 5:20 am

[...] Shannon, over at SavingAdvice, disagrees with the popular notion that you should hire others to do your work for less: [...]

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Wealthizfreedom
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 5:57 am

Some tasks do require a professional service, like plumbing, electrical etc. Also, if you are working 50 – 60 hours a week and by the time it comes to do some menial tasks, your’re so exhausted, the value of hiring a service is beyond monetary and serves an emotional and mental relief. That is how we treat ourselves, like going out to dinner.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Alexandria
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 6:43 am

When I was young and made half the income I pretty much never hired anyone to do anything.

Now that I have kids, my time is more limited and immeasuarbly more valuable. The bigger income is also a large factor. I obviously would not feel comfortable outsourcing so much if I didn’t have the income – I tend to be rather frugal.

I hire people because I love my job, and value my time outside of work, and only outsource things I don’t like to do and/or I know others can do much better (the cheaper the better).

It would be silly to hire people to do things you don’t mind doing, of course. That’s kind of stating the obvious.

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
gary
Posted on:
June 18, 2008 at 3:11 pm

This is not an option if everyone makes more than you…

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Hana
Posted on:
June 19, 2008 at 8:33 am

Finally! someone who takes health into consideration. I have very poor health- am on disability,and even with a limited income, I have hired much of my housework. Right now being between housekeepers is a real hardship. We try to make up for it with prepared food and shortcut cleaning supplies, but things don’t get done. money is, in my eyes, a sdecodry resource. We use it to augment our primary ones- time and energy.

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
orchid
Posted on:
June 19, 2008 at 4:16 pm

People assign different values to their time. My freetime is worth more to me than my salary per hour, so I am willing to pay more for services to free up my time. I don’t think Redbook was implying that you should spend money if you cannot afford it. They were simply trying to make a point that your time is worth something even if you are not earning a salary. If you disagree, can’t afford to pay for services, or don’t want to pay for these services then don’t. I’m sure that there are others out there who value using money for tangible goods over paying to free up time. Everyone should look at their own finances and priorities. I hope that everyone can learn to place at least SOME value on their freetime.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
Gail
Posted on:
June 19, 2008 at 5:53 pm

>>If your health is good now, you should still consider saving that money you can use to hire someone to do a mildly annoying chore so that you can afford to pay someone to help you to do something vital when your health fails and you really need the help.
<<

Amen sister. So many seem to think that they will always have unlimited good health and income. It isn’t necessarily so. I think many people today overbook themselves because they are trying to keep up with the Jones. In the long run they are stressed out and feel like they don’t have time to get things done and need to hire it out. Save your money to hire things out when your health is too rickety to do things for yourself. And for those who think it won’t happened to them, think again.

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Debbie M
Posted on:
June 20, 2008 at 7:29 am

I agree. In fact, I most hire people who make more than me (such as doctors).

I especially like your tangible benefits criterion. Lots of activities get you closer to things so you can tell earlier when things are going wrong. Lots of activities are good exercise.

I would add this criterion: How good are you at doing the chore compared to how good the professional is? For example, I’m better at house painting that most professionals I can afford because I have time to be more careful, but I’m much worse at plumbing both because I’m ignorant and because I’m too weak to get those dang pipes to do what I want.

The real question is whether you would rather have this service than something else you could obtain with the same money.

I knew someone who budgeted a certain amount each month for stress relief. Sometimes she spent it on massages. Once she spent it on a parking permit so she could drive instead of taking the bus. If getting a maid or something makes you a lot happier, you should consider figuring out a way to do that.

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
TopWaysToSave
Posted on:
June 21, 2008 at 2:45 pm

I think a lot of chores are also the only exercise some people get. If you pay someone to do some of these jobs like tending a garden, raking leaves and mowing your lawn then you might as well pay someone to go to the gym for you too.