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.
Nobody offered them the job of chief executive, they demanded it. This is a job I had for three years without compensation.
The balance of these are"jobs Americans won't do".
The lesson? Marry an illegal alien!
Perhaps. But my point is that we have seen this exact same attempt to quantify a mother's financial value (hyper inflated) repeatedly over the years. If this is so innocuous, and it may be, why have we never seen similar articles about the value of fathers?
Wait a minute, you wear a bikini and kill spiders? Something doesn't add up.
My kids just moved out! Gonna have to go for back pay now.
Good question. I don't know why we haven't seen similar articles about the value of fathers. I know my husband, the father of our now grown sons, is PRICELESS and worth more to me than all the money in the world. :)
I mean, for comparison, take someone who lives alone. Even that person still has to do laundry, cook, clean, cut the grass, and do all the things that person needs to do to stay alive. I wonder why the "study" didn't quantify that? The answer is pretty obvious -- because they're pandering to a target audience that apparently is too insecure to figure out that they're being pandered to.
Whether or not "society" recognizes the value of what I do as a single dad means less to me than what color socks I wear. You do what you do for yourself and your family, and whether or not some outsiders pat you on the back isn't relevant. You do it because it needs to be done, and that's it. End of story, end of whining.
Although as a topic for Oprah, I'm sure its really popular.
Well, I work my butt off so that my wife DOESN'T have to work outside of the home.
The only difference is that the husbands usually work outside of the home for a lot of the day where they aren't seen. I get up at 5, get home at 4, then hop on the lawnmower, do landscaping, or whatever... and I usually don't stop or get a break either.
I don't get flowers or awards for doing all the work I do around the house; I don't expect it either. It's just doing my part of what has to be done. The recognition that you are contributing to the successful running of a household should be enough. It is for me. There's a bunch of jobs that need done on a regular basis; she does hers, and I do mine. It's a part of life, adulthood and responsibility.
People nowadays think they deserve accolades for doing what they should be doing anyways.
So what would a, Designer, CAD Operator, Computer tech, Surveyor, Architect, Contractor, Lumberjack, Landscaper, Mechanic, Sanitation worker, Grill Master, Beer drinking, DAD, make a year.
If you would have to be paid to stay home with your own kids, I don't think you would be doing them any favors.
I agree, mothers are way undervalued.
This gets me no brownie points because my wife cant read it anyway.
But what they do is far more important than most jobs.
I work on computers at a college...so f-in what..
They raise the next generation.
On their death bed who will be more fulfilled or will have accompished more?
I think it's an important point. Alan Keyes made a similar point in a book years ago on the importance of family. When we look at the dollar value of what family members do for each other out of love, we realize that any country that foolishly tries to replace the family with the state will quickly go broke and people will be much worse off. God's way works best, imagine that!
God bless mothers for all their dedication and hard work. (They didn't even include "tutor" in the list of jobs. In my area tutors make about $45 an hour.)
No way she could have done it.
Any mother of two or more would need to get paid as "conflict resolution specialist" or "mediator."
SD
It looks like we have a lot of bitter, underappreciated husbands and fathers here. (Gentlemen, Mother's Day is approaching. This is just a nice little puff piece to honor mothers. Nothing sinister or scary. The truth is, what mothers AND fathers do is priceless.)
Not while killing them. For that, I prefer a cowgirl outfit.
Boy am I getting gypped! I'm on my feet for the better part of the day - and my kids are grown! I'm going on strike!
Very true! They have only scratched the surface of what mothers do.
Not the least bit bitter or underappreciated. Taking care of my kids is my favorite thing to do in the world. I just don't expect societal "thanks" for doing it. They're my kids, not "society's", so why should "society" care? It's my responsibility, not anyone else's. The idea of some stranger thinking "hey, thanks for taking care of your house and kids" is just odd to me. It's just part of being an adult.
Salary.com also usually does a little puff piece for Father's Day. Last year, they compared the salaries of TV dads and how they have changed over the decades.
http://www.salary.com/careers/layoutscripts/crel_display.asp?tab=cre&cat=nocat&ser=Ser372&part=Par546
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