Mom Wages

[impressive]

(I must point out that this would also apply to stay-at-home-DADs.)

Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary
By Ellen Wulfhorst
Wed May 3, 9:11 AM ET

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 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.

 

[zeb1094]

I have always admired Mom's. My wife was a stay at home mom for a number of years, she did a pretty good job too! She also was a working mom for a lot of years.

Now she is a stay at home empty nester...would love to have the grandchildren over every day.

That might be why I love her!

 

[Lauren Hynde]

A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work

Or $350 if she's Mexican.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

do I get combat pay for living with teenagers and homeschooling preschoolers?

 

[gauchecritic]

plus all found and free use of the company car. But it sure takes the fun out of stealing office supplies.

 

[zeb1094]

do I get combat pay for living with teenagers and homeschooling preschoolers?

Extra $25 a month!

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I want my back pay now!

 

[zeb1094]

I want my back pay now!

I'll have your SO cut you a check.

 

[sophia jane]

I want my back pay now!

No shit. But honestly, I'd settle for respect, acknowledgment and appreciation.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

No shit. But honestly, I'd settle for respect, acknowledgment and appreciation.

Good. Otherwise you'd have to cough up half of that salary anyway. You own half the corporation.

 

[cloudy]

No shit. But honestly, I'd settle for respect, acknowledgment and appreciation.

NO SHIT.

I would help if I wasn't invisible.

 

[Honey123]

Really?!?! I'm quitting my job and in the return I'll be getting more $$ by staying home???

I don't think my husband will pay me though...he thinks having great sex 2-3 times a week is payment in itself....

 

[sophia jane]

Good. Otherwise you'd have to cough up half of that salary anyway. You own half the corporation.

Well in my case, I think I own like 3/4.

 

[zeb1094]

Really?!?! I'm quitting my job and in the return I'll be getting more $$ by staying home???

I don't think my husband will pay me though...he thinks having great sex 2-3 times a week is payment in itself....

Lucky bastard!

 

[Vincent E]

No shit. But honestly, I'd settle for respect, acknowledgment and appreciation.

Why should you be treated differently from the rest of the workforce?






This is my 700th post.

 

[entitled]

My prospective paycheck per year, calculated on a quick average of what i do in a week and taking into consideration zip code: $110,375.

i could live with that.

 

[sophia jane]

Why should you be treated differently from the rest of the workforce?






This is my 700th post.

That's true. Tho most workers get sick leave and paid vacation. Plus holidays. And weekends off.
Those would be nice perks for us moms.

 

[impressive]

That's true. Tho most workers get sick leave and paid vacation. Plus holidays. And weekends off.
Those would be nice perks for us moms.

Perks? I'd take minimum wage with those as compensation. Just give me 2 full days off/week, 2 weeks of vacation, and holidays. I'm good.

 

[sophia jane]

Perks? I'd take minimum wage with those as compensation. Just give me 2 full days off/week, 2 weeks of vacation, and holidays. I'm good.

I'd go without pay the way I do now and be thrilled with time off.

 

[impressive]

I'd go without pay the way I do now and be thrilled with time off.

Wanna spend some of it together?

 

[cloudy]

Wanna spend some of it together?

I do.

 

[impressive]

I do.

Word!

 

[sophia jane]

Wanna spend some of it together?

Sure. Just not today. I'd be terrible company today.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Another point of view (naturally)

Bankrate.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/050307/15226_1.html

Why men earn more than women
Monday March 7, 6:00 am ET
Marty Nemko

For decades, we in the media have reported that women earn less than men. As a result, we've created a generation of angry women and self-conscious men.

A new book, "Why Men Earn More," by Dr. Warren Farrell, shows we've been dead wrong: For the same work, women earn more than men. His findings are based on a comprehensive review of government and other statistics.

Farrell is no right-wing misogynist. He ran for the Democratic nomination for California governor. He's the only man ever elected three times to the board of the National Organization for Women in New York City. And he's no intellectual lightweight; the Financial Times named him one of the world's top 100 thought leaders.

The book's main message is good news for women: If women do one or more of the 25 things men more often do, women can earn more than men.

Farrell does not encourage nor discourage women from doing these 25 things: "Each of the 25 usually requires trading quality of life for money. I just want women and men to be aware of their options so they can craft a life rather than just accept what drops in their lap."

The 25 can be reduced to three:

1. Choose careers that pay more. Because of supply and demand, you'll earn more by choosing a job that:

is in an unpleasant environment (prison vs. childcare facility);
requires harder-to-attain skills (hard science vs. liberal arts);
requires longer work hours (executive vs. administrative assistant);
is unrewarding to most people (tax accountant vs. artist);
demands financial risk (commission-based sales vs. government job);
is inconvenient (traveling salesperson vs. teacher);
is hazardous (police officer vs. librarian).
Many more men than women are willing to accept such jobs, even when women are paid more. For example, women sales engineers earn 143 percent of their male counterparts' salaries, yet less than 20 percent of sales engineers are women.

2. Put in more hours. That's obvious, but key. For example, Farrell cites research that "Fortune 1000 CEOs typically paid their dues with 60- to 90-hour workweeks for about 20 years. Yet women are less than half as likely as men to work more than 50 hours a week. And women are less likely to agree, every few years, to uproot themselves and their families to far-flung places to get the necessary promotions."

Why? Because women, on average, are more involved in childrearing and other domestic activities. So, if a woman (or man) expects to rise to high-paying jobs, she may need to push harder to get hubby more involved in those activities, pay for childcare and domestic services, or decide not to have children.

I asked Farrell, "But shouldn't workplaces not expect a woman (or a man) to work so many hours that family life is undercut?" He responded, "Yes, absolutely, but we must be gender-fair. If a male corporate manager chose to take care of his children, we'd applaud him but not expect the workplace to promote him as quickly. Yet when women do the same, women's advocacy organizations often expect just that. Both men and women must accept the consequences of their choices."

3. Be more productive in the hours you do work. If women produce as much as men, the good news is they will likely be rewarded. For example, women's advocacy organizations complain that female professors earn less than male professors, but Farrell cites research that among professors who produce an equal number of journal articles, "men were likely to be paid the same or just slightly less than women."

I asked Farrell, "But apart from the 25 nonsexist reasons men earn more, isn't sexism still a factor?" He responded, "There are instances of discrimination against both women and men, but on average, no. If you knew you could hire a woman for less than an equivalent man, you'd hire women to get a price advantage over your competition. Do you think businesses so hate women that they hire more expensive men even though they'd lose so much money?"

In reflecting on Farrell's book, I wonder if, rather than denigrating men for earning more, we should respect them for their willingness to do unpleasant, but necessary, work that few women will do such as roofing, coal mining or guarding a prison -- often working themselves into an early grave. There are four widows for every widower.

And men, you might learn a lesson from women and consider trading money for quality of life.

 

[Sex and Death]

There is truly nothing any more valuable to children and families, community and culture than a mother who is home and really being present with and raisng her children.

I don't know how to thank my wife enough for giving such a gift.

That said, and I realize the risk of saying this, if mothers were financially compensated, they wouldn't be mothers.

It makes me wonder if any women feel there is a reward to being a mother who stays at home and raises her children and what the nature of that might be.

As a father who works, I get paid for working, but I do not get paid for my sacrifices of not being physically present with my children, nor do I get paid for the fathering I give them directly and indirectly, yet I feel fathering is actually a gift I am given, and have never thought or felt that I should be financially compensated for it.

Money seems to get attention, so I can understand that attaching a dollar value to the work a mother does makes a point, and that mother's feel devlaued in our culture. That's sad, on both counts.

Anyone care to comment on if there is a difference btween fathering and mothering, and/or what it might be?

My metaphor goes like this: a child is a fire, the child's mother is fuel that nourishes the fire, and the father is the ring of stones that protects and challenges the fire. The protective and challenging boundary is there so that the child can learn who he/she is, mature appropriately and in relative saftey, and ultimatley feel the desire and courage grow outside the ring of stones that make up his/her childhood identity. The nourishing fuel determines the quality of the flame and if it is easily extinguishable or is a strong flame. If the fire has no fuel, it will die out, if it has too much fuel, it will become unmanagebale and remain infantile, dependent and narcisstic. And if the ring of stones around the fire is too close or too loose, the fire is either smothered or runs wild.

S&D