Salary.com has a neat calculator that estimates what a typical mom might be worth if she were paid in real dollars for all the responsibilities she has. You might be surprised to find that a typical stay-at-home mom might be worth as much as $134,000.
In one week, a typical mom might put in 92 hours performing various duties such as: housekeeper, cook, CEO, van driver, psychologist, janitor, computer operator, etc.
Mom’s all over the world care and serve for families all out of love without receiving any monetary compensation. How great they are. Make sure you get your mom something nice for Mother’s Day coming up soon.
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While I agree all those jobs are worth that amount, the sad reality is that if stay at home moms were paid that amount, 99% would be fired after a week. This is nothing more than a PR stunt by Salary.com to bring attention and free press to themselves and find one more way to exploit women in the media.
Think about it, if someone came over and saw the average home with a stay at home mom in their “day care” mode, how many would leave their children there to be cared for during the day. Not many. How many stay at home moms would still be on the job a week later for the job they did keeping the house clean? Not many.
I’ll bet the folks at Salary.com counted talking on the phone to their girlfriends, their mother, etc. and watching Opera as paid time as well.
It has been estimated that the average office worker in the U.S. wastes 2.5 hours of an 8 hour work day doing nothing … I think if the same was observed in stay at home moms, the number would escalate. I am not taking away anything from stay at home moms, their roles are vital in the household. But, comeon, let’s get serious, $138k? That is nearly four times what the average full time employee makes.
Shall we add the stuff that men do around the house to? Hey, it doesn’t matter that they aren’t any good at it, Salary.com doesn’t seem to care. So, we could add gardener/landscaper ($42,000), garbage collector ($28,500), handyman ($52,000), and my personal favorite, Sports Color Commentator, for all those insightful comments he makes during the game ($182,000). Yeah, that is about right.
Get real.
Comment by Steve Lyon — May 5, 2007 @ 5:34 pm
Hey Steve,
I agree that these figures have to be taken with a grain of salt. I’m not sure if this was meant as a PR stunt.
For me I thought it highlighted that fact that the role of a mother is valuable and precious. So many of us appreciate our own moms or wives and how they sacrificially help around the house, never asking for anything in return. They do it all out of love and commitment, and that should be praised.
-Savvy Steward
Comment by Savvy Steward — May 7, 2007 @ 10:36 am
Steve claims that studies show that the “regular” eight hour a day worker “wastes” approximately 2.5 hours daily (perhaps talking to/emailing girlfriend/boyfriends? Downloading videos? Who knows?). From this data he infers that homemakers (a.k.a. stay at home moms), given the far more number of hours they work (92?) “waste” even more time talking to their girlfriends, mothers, and/or watching “Opera” (I believe he means “Oprah”, because I do not know of many homemakers–or their spouses–who fall over themselves to watch, say, “Madame Butterly” during a weekday, or, for that matter, a weekend). I would also add here–in relation to Steve’s comment about women wasting time talking to others–that these homemakers do not have official breaks and lunchtimes, so that the time they allegedly spend on the phone during their long, long days should be regarded as well deserved breaks. I would suggest, in fact, that it is lucky for Steve, and other male workers outside of the home, that these activities can be done while women are doing dishes,washing, ironing, folding laundry and even cooking.
Steve suggests that the estimated salary statistics regarding homemakers do not take into account the labor men do gardening,landscaping, or taking out the garbage. I have many female friends and relatives who are homemakers; in addition to their many other duties, they carry out the garbage (come on! we’re talking about closing a bag and walking a few yards to the trash cans!). These women also do the gardening, growing herbs and vegetables they can use in their cooking. I will say that in some cases (but certainly not all), their husbands do come home to ride around on their lawnmowers on weekends.
Steve’s sports “color” remark speaks for itself, and that is that menoften do (and expect to) lounge in their chairs with refreshments and snacks on evenings and weekends while women cook and chase after the kids, wash dishes, play hostess to their husbands’ friends, and then put the kids to bed. It’s interesting that Steve, in making a joke about “equal pay” for sports color commentary, does not see this activity as the equivalent of women so-called talking on the phone to their friends/mothers or watching Oprah–in other words, a waste of good time. (Of course, I’m sure that Steve, while watching his sports and giving his commentary, folds clothes and helps his kids with homework.)
If there is any question about our society’s true expectations of women, just take a gander at television ads, in which women are still shown as healers, cookers and cleaners: e.g. “Dr. Mom” is always there for her husband and children, and if she herself happens (very rarely) to get sick, the household is depicted as falling apart; men are always portrayed as having sensitive teeth or some other ailment and women are always there with the proper remedy. Also, by and large, women are still portrayed as cooks, the main nurturers of children, the drivers of children to events and lessons, and the wielders of kitchen antiseptic sprays and toilet cleaning brushes.
Given all of this, I would encourage Steve himself to “get real”–to truthfully acknowledge not only all that stay-at-home moms do, but his thoughtless dismissal of their work.
One of my main pet peeves is when women say something like this: “Jim’s not bad. He tries to help around the house.” First of all, “Jim” is not doing his wife a favor by “trying to help”; it’s his obligation to “help!” secondly, the idea that he “tries to help” portrays him as weakling whose substandard efforts are enough. They aren’t.
To use a sports metaphor that I’m sure Steve will appreciate: It’s time (yet again) for men to step up to the bat.
(Let me just end with this note: I acknowledge and truly appreciate those men who are already stepping up to the bat and who obviously appreciate the work their women do at home.)
Mary
Comment by mary — May 29, 2007 @ 1:30 am