Stay-at-home moms' work valued at $130,000 a year, new study reveals

Jet, May 16, 2005

Thanks to a new study, stay-at-home moms can now attach a dollar amount to their worth.

A sampling of 5.4 million stay-at-home mothers were asked by Web site Salary.com to come up with job titles that fit a general description of their daily routines. Titles included the family CEO, the day care provider, accountant, chauffeur, counselor, chef, nurse, laundress, entertainer, personal stylist and educator.

Salary.com, which tracks what jobs pay, took the average salary of these titles, then based on a 100-hour workweek, they estimated that a fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom would be $131,471 annually: base pay for a 40-hour workweek would be $43,461 and an additional $88,009 a year for 60 hours of overtime each week.

"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 100-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)."