According to Pew research, women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. You may be familiar with this gender pay gap in adults but it turns out it may be happening with children as well!
A recent survey found a gender pay gap in kids' allowances. An app for parents managing their kids' allowances showed that boys earned two times as much weekly allowance as girls. The average weekly allowance for a boy on the app was $13.80 while for a girl it was only $6.07.
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Psychotherapist Dr. Mike Dow says that according to this research a lot of parents were asking boys to do more but also paying them more. While parents aren’t intentionally discriminating against their own children, they need to ask themselves if they have these subconscious notions that boys are supposed to do X, Y, and Z and girls should only do this or that.
Dermatologist Dr. Sonia Batra says that by setting the expectations so low to begin with for young girls, it sets up this domino effect. As a mother of both a son and a daughter, Dr. Batra explains it’s a two-fold job. She says you need to preserve the sense of self-worth that little girls are first born with but you also need to teach your son to respect a woman’s worth and work.
Dr. Dow suggests making your children part of the discussion. Ask them what chores as a member of your family they would like to do, and how much do they think those chores are worth?
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ER physician Dr. Travis Stork ask Dr. Batra her theory on allowances and she shares that her kids don’t have them. She gives them responsibilities and tasks that they are expected to do. “I feel like your room and your board is your allowance. I pay for you!”
Dr. Batra adds that her kids have their own saving accounts with money they’ve earned, won, and been given for birthdays, and it’s up to them how they allocate those funds. The other Doctors agree this is great since it's important for kids to understand savings early on especially since, as Dr. Dow says, “In this day and age, we don’t carry around cash anymore… the concept of money almost feels like a made-up thing!”
