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.
They forgot prostitute. </sarcasm>
So here I sit, a single man who keeps his own house, does his own laundry, cooks his own meals...way I figger it, you people all owe me. I take PayPal - you can reach me at BilltheDrill@whatascam.org. Do it today.
Well, that's it. I am going to have to lay-off my wife.
This is ridiculous.
Not to denigrate what stay-at-home moms do, at all (I have made sure that my wife can do that)... but you could hire an illegal immigrant housekeeper to do that for a lot less than $134k salary.
And, do they take into account MY extra 'careers' such as landscaper, handyman, off-hours daycare provider, vehicle driver, mechanic, security, economist, waste manager, corrections officer, tutor, gigolo, etc., that I get to do after I get home from work???
What do I get? I mean, I take care of the entire yard, the pool, the actual house sturcture, the cars and any and everything mechanical or electrical. I reach crap off high shelves and I go get hernia surgery because I pick up all the heavy junk. WTF am I worth?
It certainly proves that a stay-at-home mom is worth much more to a family than one who would sacrifice the well-being of her family in order to seek "personal fulfillment" by way of a career.
You neglected to throw in "chief executive officer" and "psychologist" to inflate the figures.
SD
They ought to be careful -- democrats might get the idea to tax this as additional income.
That's crap. Running a house is NOTHING like running a business. They threw this "job" in here to bump up what the "salary" of a housewife should be.
Well then based on the hourly rate for psychologists, husbands are worth $400,000 per year.
I would never want to say anything to put down stay at home moms. They have the most important job in the world. But I suspect this was 'priced' out at the high end of everything, e.g. a master chef instead of a short-order cook.
a: this is a hit piece and has been used in court during divorce procedings. (a woman tried suing her husband for $120k/ annually for every year they had been married)
b: how much is the father worth? i don't know about other fathers (i assume its similar with them here tho) but when i'm not at work i feed and change children or help get them ready if we're going out, take care of the trash, do dishes, sometimes i cook dinner, vacuum, work on the yard (shovel in winter) work on improving the house... that's around the 50-60 hours a week i work.
c: how many of the jobs they surveyed would these mothers actually be qualified to do outside the home? the ones they'd qualify (unless they've had the education) for are all near minimum wage jobs.
i'm not devaluing moms.. my wife stays home with the kids, i wouldn't have it any other way, but to say that moms are worth so much and not mention that dads do alot to doesn't seem fair.
My stepmom worked a lot less. And she had no other jobs, anything.
I take care of my own lawn and kill my own spiders.
Bikini fee more than covers stud fee. ;-)
You know men who do those things? Wow. I got gypped! :)
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.
What they are doing is called "double-dipping" . They think that a mother that has clothes washing while having a stew cooking on the stove while in an on-line chat room should be paid for laundry machine operator, cook , and computer operator all at the same time. Also, because a nurse makes x amount of dollars for cleaning up a patient that has to use a bed pan does that I should make x amount of dollars for wiping my own butt.
But you are right. It will be on the nightly news without any intelligent thought questioning it.
I am surprised by the negative reactions to this story. I read it as acknowledging the great job millions of stay-at-home moms are doing across this country - including mine.
Maybe I need to read the story again.
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