Actually, they’re worth about $123,000 if you believe Salary.com’s latest calculations.
Yes, all you dads, who constantly berate your spouse’s decision to give up her career in the “real world” and make child raising her priority, I have news for you: Stay-at-home moms are worth six figures.
Way more, if you ask the children they pour their hearts and souls into raising, but I digress.
Salary.com has once again tried to put a price tag on the tasks stay-at-home moms accomplish in a year’s time. Have you ever wondered how much moms should really be raking in? According to the number crunchers at the salary website, the time stay-at-home mothers spend performing 10 typical job functions would equate to an annual salary of $122,732. Meanwhile, working moms “at-home” salaries total $76,184 in 2009; which is in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace.
No word on how much work-at-home moms are worth, but the figure is probably too large to fit on a single calculator. (Wink, wink.)
According to Salary.com, the job titles that best matched a mom’s definition of her work are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, facilities manager, van driver, psychologist, laundry machine operator, janitor and chief executive officer.
The site also offers a Mom Salary Wizard whereby stay-at-home types can create their own “mom paycheck.” The tool allows moms to calculate their worth based on location and the hours logged completing each of the 10 roles. Users can create a hypothetical mom paycheck and mom pay stub, which can be printed or emailed to their critics.
The salary calculator is a cute gimmick that undervalued moms can use to try to convince naysayers that their contributions should be properly valued. Personally, though, I doubt it will inspire fathers (like these schmucks) to appreciate what the mother of their children do on a daily basis. But, does their opinion really matter? It shouldn’t. If you are a stay-at-home mom, what really counts, is that you are raising healthy, happy, smart, perceptive, well-adjusted children. That’s something no one can put a price tag on.
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