The title of “mother” certainly isn’t one for the faint of heart.
She cooks, she cleans, she chauffeurs, she wrangles and she’s on the clock 24 hours a day. And the thing is, she does it all for free.
So what if a mom did receive a paycheck every two weeks for the work she does at home? Just how much money would she be taking to the bank?
For the past 14 years, Salary.com has set out to calculate the annual salary potential of a mother. Each year, more than 15,000 moms — of both the stay-at-home and working variety — are asked to name the top 10 tasks that take up most of their time throughout the week.
These jobs include laundry operator, daycare teacher, van driver, CEO, janitor and cook — just to name a few.
Salary.com analysts apply salary data and overtime pay to each job, crunch a few numbers and voila! The magic number appears.
So let’s get down to the good stuff, starting with stay-at-home moms. On average, moms who don’t work outside the home put in about 96.5 hours a week — 56.5 of those being overtime — according to the 2014 Salary.com survey.
That translates to an annual salary of $118,905. That’s up from last year’s estimate of $113,568.
So what about working moms? If they were paid for their motherly duties, they’d be pulling in an extra $70,107 a year for 59.4 hours of work a week. Again, a boost from last year’s annual salary of $67,436.
Just for fun, let’s break it down a little. The average mom spends about 11 hours a week serving as a facilities manager. The average facilities manager makes $31 an hour. That’s around $341 a week for that job alone. And as we all know, moms wear many, many hats.
Motherhood is a lot of work, and there’s no tangible paycheck attached — at least not one that can be traded in for cash.
Salary.com did, however, create a calculator where moms can go to determine their personal earning potential and paycheck. Visit Salary.com to check out that handy tool and print off a certified “Mom Paycheck.”