Finances

What is a stay-at-home mom’s work worth?

A mom’s work never ends and her professional stress is intense. How much would her job be paid if someone, somewhere, decided to give stay-at-home mom's a salary?

Putting a number on a mom’s worth is as hard as listing her tasks. A mom is an accountant, a nurse, a maid and a CEO. Let’s see how much she would be paid per year if we decided that the best job in the world was paid.

Schedule

First, to understand what a mom does at home, we must list her actions and understand her hourly rate.

The first calculation is based on the tasks of a stay-at-home mom, taking into account the extra cleaning up that must be done when there is someone at home all day.

The second calculation, for working moms, was calculated for single moms because the implication of fathers varies a lot from one family to another. We haven’t calculated the overwhelming overtime, the irregular hours bonus, the fact that a job where you sleep would mean that your house and meals are paid and the isolation premium. If you want to play along, add the factors that apply to you to your working conditions.

A stay at home mom, according to our calculations, would earn $1213.75 per week, which represents about $63K a year. A single mom who works would receive an extra $672.11 a week or $35,000 per year.

Job type

Hourly
rate

Time allocated
(per week)

Weekly
salary

 

 

Stay-at-
home mom

Working
 mom

Stay-at-
home mom

Working
 mom

Accountant

$71.35

1

1

$71.35

$71.35

Maid

$10.00

21

14

$210.00

$140.00

Event planner

$22.50

1

1

$22.50

$22.50

Stylist

$19.00

3

4

$57.00

$76.00

Secretary

$22.00

3,5

3,5

$77.00

$77.00

Nurse

$31.00

0,5

0,5

$15.50

$15.50

Driver

$11.00

2

1

$22.00

$11.00

Private teacher

$35.00

12

3

$420.00

$105.00

Chef

$21.00

14

7

$294.00

$147.00

Psychoeducator

$17.64

2

1

$35.28

$17.64

Pastry cook

$12.55

1

1

$12.55

$12.55

Coach and
animator

$13.69

3,5

3,5

$47.92

$47.92

TOTAL

 

64,50

40,50

$1 213.75

$672.11

Salary.com

According to Salary.com, an American website, our calculation is too conservative. Their calculations led them to conclude that a stay-at-home mom’s salary would range between $64,182 and $163,293 for the year 2013. Still according to them, a working mom should receive between $37,888 and $97,530 for her work.

Be proud!

Of course, this is just for fun and we know that we haven’t thought about everything that moms do in one day. We also know that a mother is worth more than what money can buy.

However, we should remind ourselves that we are precious. No employee is as dedicated to his career and no other worker wants his company to grow as much as mothers do. Sadly, a mother told us recently that: “when my husband works around the house, he builds a fence, he fixes things, we can see what he does. What I do will only be seen in years for everything that concerns our child’s education or never, for everything that concerns groceries and cleaning”. It’s a shame for mom who certainly knows how tired they are when their day is done.

You can now show off, ladies, knowing that the highest salary you can reach is $163,293 a year, and that your family knows that you are worth much more than that.

Image de Anne Costisella

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