Mom’s Salary Value Reaches $184K As Pandemic Workload Skyrockets According to a Salary.com Survey of 19,000 Mothers

“Thanks Mom!” might be the understatement of the year but it’s a good place to start

WALTHAM, MA (May 6, 2021) – The rigor of a stay-at-home mother’s job came into sharp focus during the pandemic, with median time worked reaching 106 hours per week and a fair market salary equivalent of $184,820, according to new data from Salary.com, the compensation solution provider of the trusted data and intuitive software needed to get pay right. Salary.com surveyed over 19,000 mothers since the start of the pandemic. The most time-consuming and expanded roles were Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (the role that makes sure everyone else is following the plan), which more than doubled to account for 20+ hours per week.

“We saw that mothers spent considerable time managing financial concerns and organizing the schooling of their family during the height of the pandemic,” said Lenna Turner, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Salary.com.

Other notable findings include:

• The pre-pandemic median annual salary for stay-at-home moms was $178,201, and hours worked per week was 96.5 in 2019. The median hours worked for the past decade pre-pandemic was 96 hours per week.
• In the past year, the 75^th percentile of mothers reported working an astonishing 117 hours per week.
• Working moms reported spending 54 hours per week on managing on the home front, in addition to the hours for their regular employment, for a total of 107 hours split between work and home roles.
• The data is not adjusted for, nor fully reflects, the hazard pay for the increased intensity of the work that parents have reported in the past year, which would typically be worth a premium of around 10%.

Salary.com surveys tens of thousands of stay-at-home moms and working moms annually for the past two decades to determine the value of their job if it were paid fairly. Since March of 2020, over 19,000 moms have reported their work profile across 20+ roles that make up a mother’s most time-consuming tasks from chauffeur, to CFO, to cook, and more. Salary.com analyzes the hours spent and assigns an hourly wage rate to each role. The data is not adjusted for overtime, shift differentials, bonuses or other pay premiums that companies often pay.

“In a year like no other, moms went to extraordinary lengths to keep things together on the home front, working, on average, 15.1 hours per day, seven days a week,” said Mary Crogan, Vice President of Marketing at Salary.com. “That’s an incredible workload, and one that encompasses everything from C-level responsibilities, to help desk manager, to teacher. It’s fitting that their salary value continues to rise, nearing the upper echelons of Corporate America.”

“The dramatic increase in average hours worked per week could have resulted in even higher pay, but some of that increased workload was dedicated to lower compensated roles,” stated Salary.com CEO, Kent Plunkett. “We applaud the heroic efforts of mothers everywhere to guide their families through the pandemic. ‘Thanks Mom!’ might be the understatement of the year, but it’s a good place to start.”

For more information, visit www.salary.com to check out Salary Wizard.

ABOUT SALARY.COM

Salary.com is the leading SaaS provider of compensation market data, software, and analytics, bringing more of the trusted data, expert services and intuitive software organizations need to get pay right.  The industry’s fastest-growing compensation management company, Salary.com serves over 500,000 channel partner firms, 30,000 survey participant organizations, 8,000 business-to-business software subscribers, and 45 million employees globally. For more than 20 years, Salary.com has empowered confident decisions by aligning compensation practices with recruiting, performance, and development initiatives through easy-to-access data and meaningful insights.

The market-leading CompAnalyst^Ⓡ SaaS platform accelerates compensation workflows, delivers real-time data, and powers accurate, equitable, and competitive compensation. Through its Salary Wizard and pioneering website, Salary.com delivers continually updated, reliable market pay data and career content to over 45 million visitors each year. For more information, please visit the company website at www.salary.com.

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Media Contact:

Julie Murphy
Julie.Murphy@salary.com
617-967-5426

Mary Crogan
Mary.Crogan@salary.com
978-835-4878