Posted on 05/03/2006 10:24:35 AM PDT by grundle
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released on Wednesday.
A mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home, according to the study by Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts Salary.com.
To reach the projected pay figures, the survey calculated the earning power of the 10 jobs respondents said most closely comprise a mother's role -- housekeeper, day-care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive and psychologist.
"You can't put a dollar value on it. It's worth a lot more," said Kristen Krauss, 35, as she hurriedly packed her four children, all aged under 8, into a minivan in New York while searching frantically for her keys. "Just look at me."
Employed mothers reported spending on average 44 hours a week at their outside job and 49.8 hours at their home job, while the stay-at-home mother worked 91.6 hours a week, it showed.
An estimated 5.6 million women in the United States are stay-at-home mothers with children under age 15, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
NOT 'JUST A MOM'
"It's good to acknowledge the job that's being done, and that it's not that these women are settling for 'just a mom,"' said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. "They are actually doing an awful lot."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 26 million women with children under age 18 work in the nation's paid labor force.
Both employed and stay-at-home mothers said the lowest-paying job of housekeeper was their most common role, with employed mothers working 7.2 hours a week as housekeeper and stay-at-home mothers working 22.1 hours in that role.
"Every husband I've ever spoken to said, 'I'm keeping my job. You keep yours.' It's a tough one," said Gillian Forrest, 39, a stay-at-home mother of 22-month-old Alex in New York. "I don't know if you could put a dollar amount on it but it would be nice to get something."
To compile its study, Salary.com surveyed about 400 mothers online over the last two months.
Salary.com offers a Web site (http://www.mom.salary.com) where mothers can calculate what they could be paid, based on how many children they have, where they live and other factors. The site will produce a printable document that looks like a paycheck, Coleman said.
"It's obviously not negotiable," he said.
On average, the mother who works outside the house earns a base pay of $62,798 for a 40-hour at-home work week and $23,078 in overtime; a stay-at-home mother earned a base pay of $45,697 and $88,424 in overtime, it said.
In a Salary.com study conducted last year, stay-at-home mothers earned $131,471. The potential earnings of mothers who work outside the home was not calculated in the previous study.
sounds like a class action suit in the making...who could be the defendant...perhaps they'll petition for "reparations."
Whether or not the dollar figures are entirely accurate, this article shows what stay-at-home moms have known for years. They don't get a paycheck for what they do every day (and night), but if they did, their many "jobs" would be worth some monetary value.
I remember when my husband and I purchased life insurance years ago. My husband thought that the only insurance he needed on me was enough to cover funeral costs if I died. Our agent explained to him that if I died, he would have to hire someone to do the work that I did...and that would cost money.
Also, unless I missed it in the article, they did not state that moms should be paid a salary.
Didn't notice the primary occupation on the list.
So, I wake up and make breakfast for the girls and an esspresso for my wife. At night I clean the kitchen. Some days I make dinner; weekends I help with the "big cook" for the week's food. What should I add to my salary?
Sorry. Its about the work required to maintain a household, not about salary or compensation.
I can get a good Eastern or Western European Nanny for just under $500 a week. My wife is going back to work!
Poor henpecked husbands. Now their stay at home wives will beat the hell out of them with this info.
Perhaps it serves a purpose in making women feel a sense of worth beyond the obvious benefits of being a stay-at-home mom. Also might make a few men sit up and take notice of how much their wives and the mothers of their children actually do. :)
Good!
Now we know how much of a TAX CREDIT Fathers should get, so they can pay their wife.
No one is denigrating the work that mothers do. But it is silly to overinflate them into a monetary value that is ridiculous.
It is this exaggeration that many here are having fun with. Yes, wives and mothers (stay-at-home and otherwise) perform valuable functions. So do fathers and husbands. Neither should be doing these because they expect to be compensated like a chief executive officer for it.
SD
That's why I am divorcing my wife and marrying one of those beautiful Mexican illegals. She'll do the job for 10% of that.
You and I both! Not everything in life is a big conspiracy. LOL I read the article as you did, and took away with it the simple thought (and true one), that stay-at-home moms and working moms do alot of work and they deserve some kudos for their efforts.
Im single and live alone, I have to do everything. Wheres my money?
Dads should be paid for yardwork, walking the dog, waxing the truck, barbequing, comparison shopping for the family car, for preparing taxes ...
I'm a stay home AND home schooling mom. That means my husband owes me even more!
OK. I confess. Sometimes I'm a bit of a slacker, so I'll settle for a nonnegotiable 100 grand. If I were my husband, I'd jump all over that deal! (heh, heh, heh)
I'm with you. The only message I gleaned was that stay-at-home-moms work really hard, and are providing a valuable service to their husbands and children.
Now, if the IRS starts trying to tax families with stay-at-home moms based on some kind of intangible income, then there might be an agenda here. Until then, I think it was just kind of a pat on the back to all the moms out there who left the workplace to raise a family.
I much should I get paid for brushing my own teeth? Or putting on my own clothes?
Also for the single parents who work full time (= minimum of 50 hours gone from the home) and do ALL the housekeeping, yard work, bill paying, etc....trying to keep a car or two running, insured and in gasoline; doctor appointments, school meetings....health insurance that costs 25% of your take-home pay.. If you have help with these things from a spouse or your illegal immigrant employees, count yourself lucky.
It's sad when the value of everything in this nation is reduced to it's worth in dollars and cents.
But then she'd have to pay taxes on it.
I had to quit my job and move back to the midwest to take care of my elderly mom. I'm not married but WHERE IS MY MONEY? I expect and demand that the government (you) pay for me to stay home like a "housewife." Now, fork it over.
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