A survey about Mother’s Day, asking how much moms should get paid, was featured in a Parents article.
Are Moms (and Dads!) Undervaluing Motherhood?
A new survey has found most people think a fair salary for motherhood would be less than six figures, with men placing its value at $20K less than women.
By Lindsay Tigar
Before kids, you probably defined your job as super-demanding. And when you were still at the office after hours answering emails and putting out business fires, you might have wondered how much overtime was worth. But then you became a mom and realized the toughest gig of all isn’t trying to become a director or a manager, but attempting to stay sane while raising kiddos. Being a parent is a non-stop, 24/7 responsibility, and for those moms who stay at home, having a vacation day—or even time to eat lunch—isn’t a workplace guarantee.
If you could put a number on how much that time is worth, you’d probably say priceless, right? Well, according to a new report, both men and women undervalue the work of a being a mom.
Recently, Credit Sesame conducted a survey of 1,000 people to decide what they thought a fair salary for a mom would be. Their findings may shock you: The vast majority didn’t think ‘motherhood’ was worth six figures, with 65 percent saying a mother’s pay would be $99,999 or less. Thirty-eight percent of those said moms should be paid between $0 and $49,999, while 27 percent said between $50K and $99,999 was fair. And while 71 percent of women thought mothers deserved more than $50K, only 52 percent of men agreed. On average, the men thought women should be paid $60,163 for mom duties, while women thought the number should be $81,410.
If you do the math, the average salary based on all responses was $70,811.83. Though this is higher than the median household income in the United States, which is $58,673, we still think it’s way far off from the worth of a mom. Just consider this: Minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 an hour, and since being a mom is an all-day everyday job, if you add up how much a minimum-wage salary would be for a year, it’s $63,510—only $7,301 less than the suggested salary from this survey.
Though motherhood isn’t a paid position, if it was? We think it’s definitely worth more than minimum wage.
