Benefits May 3, 2006

Report: Stay at Home Moms Due 2% Raise

May 3, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - If stay-at-home moms got a regular paycheck for their daily responsibilities, this year's check would be 2% larger than last.
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The latest study of how much compensation “non-working” moms deserve by consultant Salary.com pegged their 2006 pay at $134,121 up from 2005’s $131,471, according to a news release. Not only that, but w orking moms would earn $85,876 annually for the mom portion of their work, in addition to their actual work salary, Salary.com said.

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The announcement listed the top ten job titles that best matched a mom’s definition of her work (in order of hours spent per week):

  • housekeeper
  • day care center teacher
  • cook
  • computer operator
  • laundry machine operator
  • janitor
  • facilities manager
  • van driver
  • CEO
  • psychologist.

Psychologist, laundry machine operator, computer operator, and facilities manager are new to this year’s list of mom job responsibilities. The job title of nurse fell out of the top 10 this year.

A Mom Paycheck?

Salary.com also unveiled The Mom Salary Wizard to help moms figure their most current “paycheck.” Users canprice the “mom job”, based on location and mom’s personal hours worked in each of the 10 roles. Users can create a hypothetical mom paycheck and mom pay stub, which can be printed and emailed to family and friends for Mother’s Day.

“People recognize that both stay at Home Moms and Working Moms carry a heavy load of responsibility and work long hours,” said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. “It is an eye-opener for many people when they see the real market value of the work moms perform. This year, by adding information about the compensation for working moms, we hope to expand the recognition of just how hard all moms are working and of the economic value they bring to society.”

According to Salary.com, 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. 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.

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.

Salary.com surveyed about 400 mothers online over the last two months.

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