Q: Doesn’t an organization or website put out an annual salary of all of the duties that mothers do throughout the year? What is the salary for mothers this year?
—Lance DeLoach, Thomaston
A: The responsibilities of a stay-at-home mom are worth $118,905 a year for 96.5 hours a week of work, according to Salary.com's annual survey. Insure.com put a yearly value of $62,984.76 on the work performed by a mother in its annual Mother's Day Index.
More than 15,000 mothers participated in the Salary.com survey, the results of which were released last week. The website stated: “This is not an exact science, nor is it meant to be. … Everyone can relate to a paycheck, so that’s how we choose to point out the massive contributions mothers make.” Salary.com took a mother’s day-to-day responsibilities, divided them in categories including van driver, janitor, laundry operator, housekeeper, cook, CEO, day care teacher, facilities manager and psychologist, among others. A dollar figure was placed on the amount of hours worked, with overtime being calculated into the final salary.
The tasks and time for a working mother are worth $70,107 a year for 59.4 hours a week. The stay-at-home mom’s pay increased from $113,568 and the working mom’s pay increased from $67,436 from 2013, according to Salary.com.
Insure.com used information from a survey of 1,001 women with children at home and median wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to compile its figures. It’s categories included tasks such as cooks, taxi drivers, childcare worker and even private detective and investigators for “finding out what the kids are up to.”
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
