http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=112336
Associated Press - 5/9/2008 5:00:00 AM
var addthis_pub = 'onenewsnow';
BOSTON-
If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than
personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she'd rake in a nifty sum
of nearly $117,000 a year.
That's
according to a pre-Mother's Day study released Thursday by Salary.com,
a Waltham, Mass.-based firm that studies workplace compensation.
The
eighth annual survey calculated a mom's market value by studying pay
levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs,
ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver,
psychologist and chief executive officer.
This year, the
annual salary for a stay-at-home mom would be $116,805, while a working
mom who also juggles an outside job would get $68,405 for her motherly
duties.
One stay-at-home mom said the six-figure salary sounds a little low.
"I
think a lot of people think we sit and home and have a lot of fun and
don't do a lot of work," said Samantha Russell, a Fremont, N.H., mother
who left her job as pastry chef to raise two boys, ages 2 and 4. "But
they should try cleaning their house with little kids running around
and messing it up right after them."
The biggest driver
of a mom's theoretical salary is the amount of overtime pay she'd
receive for working more than 40 hours a week. The 18,000 moms surveyed
about their typical week reported working 94.4 hours — meaning they'd
be spending more than half their working hours on overtime.
Working moms reported an average 54.6 hour "mom work week" besides the hours they spent at paying jobs.
Russell
agreed her job as a stay-at-home mom is more than full-time. But she
said her "job" brings intangible benefits she wouldn't enjoy in the
workplace.
"The rewards aren't monetary, but it's a
reward knowing that they're safe and happy," Russell said of her sons.
"It's worth it all."