Strollerderby : salary

Someone Owes Moms $117K

Jen Chaney — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:02:00 GMT

According to a "study" released by salary.com, stay-at-home moms would make close to $117,000 a year if they were compensated for their work. That figure was calculated based on the salaries of 10 jobs -- including housekeeper and CEO -- whose duties share something in common with motherhood.

Working moms, on the other hand, only earn $68,405 for their kid-rearing efforts. Because, you know, they're just mothering "part-time." These figures are slightly higher than the ones quoted in Brett's recent blog post about New York moms, who apparently are only worth $70K per year even when they're working the maternal shift full-time. (Don't they know how high the cost-of-living is in New York? Momma needs to pay the rent and buy a new pair of shoes, you know.)

It's fun to speculate about how much money each of us could earn if only we got paid for running a family.But it's also a depressing reminder that women in general, whether they are mothers or not, still aren't compensated at the same level as most men. And as a society, our attitude toward ambitious women is still pretty conflicted. (No, I'm not referring to Hillary Clinton, overtly or covertly, with these comments. But someone will probably assume I am, so whatev.)

It would be nice if SAHMs, working moms or even working women period actually were paid the money they deserve. Until that day comes, well, we always have another survey from salary.com to look forward to. Next time, I'd like them to look into how much money moms deserve to spend on their non-existent corporate credit cards. I think we have another pretend-$10 Grand coming our way.

What is mommy worth?

Brett Singer — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:35:00 GMT

This story pops up every now and then. The question is: how much would mom get paid if her job were in the private sector?

The Daily News reports on a study from MomConnection that has come up with a number for moms in New York. And… drum roll please…

$70,000 a year.

They came up with this amount using data from the web site salaryexpert.com.

As for what the women surveyed think they should get if they were to receive a yearly salary, "34% said $100,000, 31% said $50,000, 27% said $75,000 and 8% said $25,000." Man, I'd like to meet the women who said $25,000. Cheap date.

I say "women" because this survey was specifically about stay at home moms. I'm not crying discrimination or anything like that but it still surprises me how often articles like this read as if they were written in the 1950's.

Here's the best part (a quote from someone at MomConnection):

These are Generation Y moms in their 20s and early 30s who made a considered choice to become mothers…They are less likely to feel annoyed or to be whiny."

Oh! I see. As opposed to the whiny wimmen of Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and everyone who came before. Weren't they annoying? All that, "Wah! I want respect! I want equal pay! I'm whiny!" They didn't make a choice to become mothers. They were forced into it, right? (Grrr…)

So – I ask you, the readers. How would you respond? What do you think the salary for a mother should be? Or is what a mother does, to paraphrase the MasterCard ads, priceless?

image: The Daily News

SAHDs Worth Less Than SAHMs

Karen Murphy — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:24:00 GMT

Um, sorry, stay-at-home dads. Apparently not only are you unmanly, but the work you do just doesn't cut it. In fact, according to a new stupid study by Salary.com, you deserve less phantom money than do the reviled-but-evidently-harder-working-than-you stay-at-home-moms.

See, the thing is, you're not working enough overtime. You're only putting in some 80 hours a week at this Dad Thing, while the stay-at-home moms put in more than 90. It could be that you're more efficient at your work, couldn't it? Why yes, and it also could be that you're watching too much Scott Baio. So you only don't get $128,755, while SAHMs don't get $138,000.

However, dads with jobs also deserve an additional $72,000 for the work they do around the house. That's a LOT of lawn-mowing.

I don't know why calculating your worth as a dad in terms of salary (that you'll never see) is useful, but if you want to do it, go ahead. And then give yourself a hug, for being you.