May 3, 2016
New Data Shows the Worth of a Mother's Work Growing Significantly as They Take On More Tech-Focused Responsibilities
WELLESLEY, MA--(May 3, 2016) - If stay-at-home moms received paychecks for everything they do, how much would they earn? Salary.com, the leader in employer-reported compensation data, software and services, today released new data that answers this question.
By identifying the jobs that moms perform each day, and the market compensation for those roles, Salary.com revealed that in 2016, working moms would receive a yearly salary of $90,222 for nearly 59 hours of work per week, while stay at home moms would earn nearly $143,102 for 92 hours per week.
"While mothers don't ask for or expect a paycheck, everyone knows how hard they work to manage their homes and take care of their families," said Kent Plunkett, CEO of Salary.com. "Our goal is to provide a real dollar value on all of the tasks they perform and the time spent on them -- not just the traditional roles, but also the new responsibilities that have emerged in the last few years with the arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected homes. With moms now required to be performance coaches and IT experts on top of everything else they do, the value of their roles has increased significantly."
In addition to traditional roles, like performing the duties of a housekeeper, cook, nurse, psychologist and nutritionist, today's moms are increasingly tasked with new responsibilities. These include serving as a network administrator to keep the family's computers, tablets and smartphones up and running, and as a social media marketing manager, to monitor their family's social interactions, share updates with friends and relatives, and connect and share ideas with other moms. The growing focus on technology extends to the traditional roles as well -- in the age of IoT, mothers increasingly leverage their devices to perform the duties of an accountant, buyer, photographer and teacher, further driving up their value.
Since 2000, Salary.com has surveyed thousands of working and stay-at-home moms to identify their most time-consuming tasks and the amount of time spent on each one. By applying its extensive salary data on the compensation of each job, factoring in the number of hours worked including overtime, Salary.com determines what mothers would make if paid an annual salary. Calculating the value of a mother's work over the past 16 years, Salary.com has tracked how their roles have changed year to year and how their worth continues to rise.
In 2016, Salary.com found the ongoing shift to more technology-focused tasks, as well as mothers taking on even more roles than ever, has led to a large jump in what a mother's work is worth compared to years past. For instance, in 2011, Salary.com found working moms to have earned the equivalent of $53,471, while stay at home moms earned $115,432. Even when compared to 2015, a stay at home mom's value has increased by nearly $20,000, up from $124,696 to this year's $143,102.
The dramatic increase in 2016 reflects the growing use of technology in the home and the need for mothers to be more tech savvy, resulting in the significant increases in what they would be paid.
"As moms are forced to take on new roles, requiring different skill sets and more technical expertise than ever before, the actual dollar value of their work will only continue to increase," said Plunkett. "Though the amount of work they do for their families may go unnoticed or unappreciated, our 2016 data shows just how hard they work -- and how they should be compensated for it."
Additional insights from Salary.com's 2016 survey data on how much a mother's work is worth can be accessed at: http://mom.salary.com.
About Salary.com
The leader in employer-reported compensation data, software and services, Salary.com provides enterprises and small businesses with reliable information about employee pay levels and compensation-related best practices, trends and policies. Through industry-leading cloud-based software and extensive domain knowledge, the company helps clients win the war for talent by simplifying the connections between people and pay. Salary's proven technology solutions, coupled with actionable data and content, empower businesses to make fast, accurate compensation decisions about pay and deliver superior results.