Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary

[midnight armadillo]

Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary

By Ellen Wulfhorst | May 3, 2006

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."

{more at link}
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/03/study_us_mothers_deserve_134121_in_salary/?p1=MEWell_Pos1

[Dogmudgeon]

1. But raising children has no value in the Free Market

Why do you think it's called the "Free Market", anyway?

--p!
TANSTAAFM - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Market

[Dawgs]

2. Is this is a joke?

:crazy:

[mcscajun]

11. No. Why would you think it is?

Seriously.

[One_Life_To_Give]

21. Because it only talks about mothers

We all do more jobs than what we actually get compensated for.

It's nice to think that I should get paid for cleaning up my own house. But who exactly is going to pay me for this.

[mcscajun]

27. Of course we do...but mothers contribute to the household's economy

and only mothers were surveyed.

Your beef is with the folks who designed the survey.

BTW, I'm not a mother, and no, nobody's paying for cleaning my house, either. :)

[LostinVA]

16. No, why should it be? Every be a 27/7/365 stay-at-home mom?

Every now and then Oprah has a show where husbands who mouth off about how easy their wives have it -- and insist on doing NOTHING at home because they've been "working all day" -- have to take care of the house and kids for one weekend. Just one weekend, but following "rules" : cooking, cleaning, shopping, watching kids, etc. Can't hire a sitter or cleaner.

EVERY time she has one of these shows, ALL the men are flabbergasted by what their wives do. After only one weekend.

I'm not a mom, legally anyone's wife, or stay at home... but they have some of the toughest jobs in the world!

[mondo joe]

29. I'd much rather be a stay at home parent.

My situation is unusual - my kids have 4 parents.

And when they were younger we all worked less to have more time at home with the kids.

That was our choice and we liked it. I personally really enjoyed it, and though I can't see any justification for it now that they're in school, I'd love to be a stay at home parent.

[lumberjack_jeff]

33. I'm a stay-at-home dad

who simultaneously is building a house.

It's a better gig than working for a living.

[HereSince1628]

3. I've been expecting the annual report on the value of mothers

Go mom's!

[LosinIt]

4. What is the salary of a Working Single Mother?

She does it all. The yard work, the plumbing, ya da, ya da, ya da.....

on edit: as it all comes back to me now..
shoveling snow, car maintenance and quibbling with the mechanic who is talking to your boobs rather than your face while he is trying to rip you off, appliance repair, insect search and destroy missions, small animal burial, etc.

Then I was rescued by a new husband who is very handy around the house and he even cooks.

[USA_1]

5. stay-at-home Dads???

comparable worth???

[mcscajun]

10. Quite probably.

Only they weren't surveyed.

[LostinVA]

17. I know one guy who does this

because his wife makes a huge amount of money. He loves it -- he really does -- staying home with his kids, cleaning, shopping. Of course, his wife comes home and helps around the house at nights and on weekends, so he gets a bit of a break.

[midnight armadillo]

6. you know what pisses me off

here in MA we can get a child care tax deduction if my wife were to go to wirk and we were to pay others to raise our kids. We make sacrifices so she can stay home - and get no tax break.

[Saphire]

15. women get penalized in many ways for staying home.

[Ilsa]

34. Exactly. I'm at home because of our disabled child and a travelling

spouse. I know others manage it, but I'm afraid I'd completely bonkers if I tried to hold down a responsible job (in nursing) right now. Nursing was stressful enough without a family. I pretty much take care of everything around the house except the garbage and mowing the lawn.

But yes, I worry about my financial future, the lack of FICA "savings" toward my retirement even though I've put a big chunk of change into the system when I was working. And I am concerned about being unable to save my salary for our future.

[treestar]

37. Families who can afford it have it good - some can't even do that

They have to work.

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. What about if I work when my kids are in school, and come home at

2, just in time to see them home? That would be interesting to know. Or the average single mom as posted above.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. But she drives a minivan

I F she earned $134,121 a year maby she would be driving an SUV!














edit ♪♪♪

[dogday]

9. Frankly, I don't think you can put a value

on what a Mother does 24/7 hours a day.... It is a thankless job, but I would not trade it for anything else in the world....

[msongs]

12. "deserve"? - minus the benefits of course

as an economic statement, deserve should not be in there, as it is a value judgement not an analysis.
does the analysis consider quality of work done? and market rates in regions? Deductions for self serving portions of work?

should people fill out job applications on this issue before getting married and having sex:-)


Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art
mugs and shirts

[mondo joe]

13. The only wage people "deserve" is the one they negotiate and agree to,

on their own or through collective bargaining.

When my kids were younger we worked less outside the home. We didn't "deserve" anything for staying home - it was our choice and our investment.

[Midlodemocrat]

20. I think the word deserve is meant in terms of

what it would actually cost to pay someone to do all the jobs that a stay at home mom does.

I work full time from my home so I can be here with my kids. It is a staggering work load, but I elected to do this rather than leave them.

[mondo joe]

26. It just seems very bizarre to me.

Staying home is an investment some people have the option to make. It's also a division of labor couples can make.

But it's not as if it's not a choice.

I guess we could sort out all the wages we all "deserve" for doing all sotrs of things. This week on my own non-paid hours I cooked dinner, did some home repairs, mowed the grass and catred the kids around. Oh, and helped my 8 year old design and make birthday invitations (hey, they were really cool!). I wonder what I'm owed for that.

[mntleo2]

14. Mothering Is Not Work According To...

...the Heritage Foundation. It was codified in 1996 and therefore mothering without a wage is not a "legitimate" career and is not worthy of support. I am *not* making this up. When Robert Rechtor of the HF, wrote the "Personal Responsibility Act" for welfare mothers, he made a law that the *only* way anyone (especially women) contributed to society was when they worked in paid employment. Of course, at the time, Americans did not care because they thought this law would only apply to poor mothers ~ laws passed like that certainly to not apply to all of us, does it? Then we wonder why the president has the hubris to believe that he can break any laws he wants when everyone at that time was applauding enacting this law aimed at the poor. Welfare Reform says that working a minimum wage job is actually better than being a mother, that raising children is less important to your country than working a minimum wage job.

Robert Rechtor said just a few weeks ago on NPR that low income welfare mothers were "doing nothing" and NPR cited a job at Popeye's as "successful" for a young low income mother. You will hear him saying it in NPR's archives, if you search for "Welfare Reform". So being a mother is "doing nothing" but sitting by the pool collecting dividends is "work" in his world, according to his ilk. No wonder the Iraqi soldiers, mostly from low income families, are considered nothing more than cannon fodder. After all, raising these fine men and women is "doing nothing".

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle <---tireless (and furious) worker for justice for the poor

[TahitiNut]

18. I wonder if Ma Barker, Andrea Yates, and Susan Smith are worth that..

:shrug:


:popcorn: :hide: :popcorn:

[SmokingJacket]

19. Life is work... so what?

I say that as a former stay-at-home mother who recently started working: it's true, my job is WAY easier than staying home with kids, but being with kids is just plain LIFE.

[newportdadde]

22. I wish I could hold back money pre tax for my wife like you can for daycar

My wife is a stay at home mom with a 2 year old and two 10 week old twins. Right now I think she's worth a hell of a lot more then 134k :).

I wish I could take some kind of pretax deduction like I could if I left them at daycare.

You know whats sad if my wife was working in her profession(teaching) we would actually be paying out extra money for her to go to the work. The salary from teaching wouldn't cover the daycare costs and I'm talking your run of the mill average daycare in the midwest.

[midnight armadillo]

24. I am in the nearly identical situation

2.5 year old son, 5 week old second son (so we have it easier than you!) My wife working (again , a teacher) would also result in a net loss.

All I want is the tax deduction for daycare. In MA that deduction doesn't apply if a relative watches the kids, even if you pay them, from what I understand...

[WePurrsevere]

23. Gee... I wish the gov would base my SSD on that amount instead of only ...

what they consider "real" :eyes: work that one gets "credit" for. B-)

As it was I barely made enough to get any benefits because I chose to be there for my daughters as much as I could when they were very young and then I became disabled with MS when I was still rather young. I honestly don't regret staying home and being there for my daughters but I've paid and will continue to pay for it financially for the rest of my life... or until BushCo destroys the SSD program. ::sigh::

Ah well... it probably will never happen but it would be nice if someday stay-at-home parents were valued enough by society that they could earn credit towards SS benefits at least until the child/ren are old enough to be in school full time.

[BiggJawn]

25. Let's see here....

OK, for a single dad, take all that, and add to it:
Plumber
Electrician
Carpenter
Coach
Auto mechanic
Shoe repairman
Tailor
Garbageman
Landscaper
A-V Tech

Oh, and that's in addition to my so-called "REAL job"...

[taught_me_patience]

28. Every year this crap comes up

and every year I'll be here to shoot it down. This article goes against even the most basic economic principles. Pay is NOT a function of the requirements of a job!!! If this were so... people shovelling shit for a living (and janitors), would be paid millions while CEO's who play golf with clients all day would be paid nothing. Pay is a function of demand and supply of the labor-force willing to perform a job. To perform the skills mentioned in the article (housekeeper, day-care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver) requires no skill, and thus the qualified applicant pool would be large enough to depress the wages. This is evidenced by the fact that typical "house nanny's" make 25k/year.

Being a housewife may be important and it may be noble, but it does not deserve the kind of pay that most typical professionals make.

[mondo joe]

30. In addition, if you look at the HOUSEHOLD unit, an

effective stay at home parent saves money for the household so they are already impacting the net value of the household.

[mntleo2]

31. Homemaking Is Also A Rare Commodity Anymore...

Look, if you want to stay strictly on the pay issue, then perhaps you need to reevaluate your values. It is YOUR values that say that homemaking is not worth that kind of pay, not many of us who believe it is, which is the point of the article. Sadly you are right though, many do not value the job, all right. Perhaps if our economy was based on more than money, everyone might be better off, not just the rich, as it is now. I guess your mother "did nothing" while raising you, but I value MY mother's labor and she was more than noble, she sacrificed a lot for not only raising her children, but for her community and her extended family too. She deserved executive pay and it is a freaking tragedy that society sees her and the millions of other women (mostly) as having "done nothing" while raising us, giving time, resources, and their many talents to their communities and extended family.

Perhaps more people should admitted that they do not value the work of parenting the next generation. Perhaps like you say, only executives deserve to be renumerated. Instead of merely calling it "noble" while not supporting it, then we shouldn't have any more children to take care of us, run this country, and parent the following generation when we are old. Perhaps you and all who believe with you, need to enlist in the service because the children fighting this war are not worthy of anyone's time. Perhaps you have some magic way you are going to change your own Depends that does not need someone younger to do it for you when you are too old and sick to get up out of bed.


I feel sorry for a country that has such little value for the children coming up that they accept the idiocy of just saying, "Well, not valuing mothering is just the way it is..." It seems to be just fine, this "need for greed" rather than the need for community. Thus, if you get a stupid, sulky, underpaid, uncaring, abusive person to take care of you when you are sick and dying, you will get what you ask for and what you deserve. Personally I prefer to have a caring relative who actually loves me to be with me in my old age. And people who prefer what I do deserve to be heard too!

Otherwise perhaps we all need to rethink "the way it is" and do something to change not only that personal attitude, but the attitude of this country who has such little regard they don't even feel its future merits support for mothers and fathers. Parents are actually doing something more than working some crap job for a corporation that is only making some rich man richer. Mothers are making sure this country continues to exist, that YOU are able to live in an infrastructure that makes life better for you. It is a travesty to not value mothering, and if we all accept the lack of value society places upon that work, we are saying that we do not value our future.

Economics indeed! So keep shooting it down, but it is shortsighted and the values in your economics stink. I am not saying YOU have these values, but to accept them as being "the way it is" is shortsighted IMO. Unlike most of the foolish economists I have seen, I would like to see America last more than beyond the next fiscal quarter as they seem to do.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[taught_me_patience]

32. that's why I'm saying this article is bogus.

you cannot quantify the "moral impact" of being a stay at home mom. Its the ARTICLE that makes that quantification, not me. The need, obviously, is to be able to make comparisons that we can easily recognize and understand. However, once you "go down that road", you find that you'll open yourself up to more criticism from real economists that "scientifically measure" and are experts at these types quantifications. It is not "my values", either, i'm simply stating a fact of economics... MONETARY pay is determined by what the market will bear -- nothing more and nothing less.

[treestar]

36. Also, no one can do ten jobs at once and get paid for them,

so each housewife is doing only 1/10th as good a job as whoever is being paid for it.

[mntleo2]

38. Uhhhh...Have You Ever Been A Mother????

Mothers do do ten jobs at once, they are the original and biggest multitaskers in the world, lol. Have you answered the phone while simultaneously grabbing that dangerous thing from the mouth of a toddler running past you, also stirring dinner with the other hand opening the fridge with you foot for the 3 ingredients you need, measuring and poured them into the frypan, meanwhile gesturing to your 10 year old to stop "karate kicking" his 8 year old brother, while turning off the sink water that was rinsing the dish you need for the 2nd dish you are making??? I have and more, lol

Cat In Seattle

[treestar]

42. Uh, have you ever had a job in the real world?

That description applies to any job these days.

But you deliberately missed my point. No one holds ten paid jobs at once, and this article was trying to make the point about economic value.

Well, a full time housekeeper cleans house full time. No kids, no driving, etc.

Her own house probably isn't real clean.

[mntleo2]

43. Yes I Have Over 35 Years Working For A Wage

...and also mothered all during that time. After all those years I wasted my time merely making rich men richer, I found that being a mother is the most difficult job there is and it is not respected for what it produces. I am just sayin'...

Cat In Seattle

[treestar]

35. Guess the average man can't afford a wife

Also, men do yard work, maybe someone should point that one out.

[lonestarnot]

39. repuke @ work hiding this from his stay at home wife.

[hopeisaplace]

40. I agree with these numbers.

Having done a lot in my life, the constant never ending commitment has always been
raising children and running a home. Along with everything else,
I also tutor one of my sons in 4 subjects. So my day starts early and
ends very late.

[kineneb]

41. stay-at-home caretaker

We live on Hubby's disability. I am the cook, dietician, house cleaner, maintenance person, gardener, bookkeeper, appointments secretary, chauffeur, medical aid, and ... Gross pay $0. Contributions to Soc.Sec., $0. I expect to be very poor when I am old, since I am only in my late 40s now.

Those who must or choose to care for others are never appreciated for their labor.