A Bundle of Myrrh

It’s frustrating that the term ‘working mother’ is typically only applied to mother’s with jobs outside of the home. Aren’t all mothers ‘working mothers’? A stay at home mom doesn’t have a 9-5 job in an office somewhere, but she does have a “job”. I often think being a stay-at-home-mom is like running a daycare, a cleaning service and a cafeteria at the same time…without your two 15 minute smoke breaks…and some days don’t we all need a smoke break!? Ok, maybe not a nasty cig, but that sweet cup of coffee and scheduled 15 minutes of silence would be super.

Here’s part of an interesting article I found:

What mothers are really worth
Stay-at-home mothers wear many hats. They’re the family CEO, the day care provider, accountant, chauffeur, counselor, chef, nurse, laundress, entertainer, personal stylist, and educator. Based on a 90-hour work week, Salary.com has estimated that a fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom would be well over $90,000 for executing all of her daily tasks. Factor in overtime, and the appropriate salary takes a leap of around $25,000.

“Mothers are responsible for the mental and physical well being of the family – putting a price on that isn’t easy,” said Lena Bottos, compensation market analyst for Salary.com. “But we looked at it as what you would have to pay other people to do the same work if the mom weren’t there.”

Even if these mothers were getting paid what they’d be worth on the market, Bottos added that they still wouldn’t be adequately compensated. “When you take into account that it represents a 90-hour workweek, and doesn’t even begin to factor in that they are on call 24 hours a day, it’s not so large. Plus, stay-at-home moms get no benefits in terms of pension or 401(k).”