May 9, 2008 8:17 am US/Pacific
Mother's Work Worth Six-Digit Salary, Survey Finds
(CBS)
If mothers received a salary, have you ever wondered how much they would be paid? A new survey from
Salary.com reveals an amount that might just boggle the mind.
A mother's work is never done, just ask Kara Burrell. She is a stay-at-home mom with a seven-month old, a two-year-old and a four-year-old.
Salary.com studies workplace compensation. The job titles that best matched a mother's definition of her work in order of hours spent per week are housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, laundry machine operator, computer operator, psychologist, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and janitor.
Taking a look at the average pay in the Bay Area and how many hours a typical mom works, here's how it calculates for Burrell.
She averages about 900 hours of housework a year, at the rate of $11 an hour. Since Burrell is her children's day car center teacher, that's about 900 hours a year at $15 an hour. She is also a full-time cook, around 650 hours a year, also at $15 an hour.
Then there's the laundry. Burrell says in her household she does two to three loads a day. That's about 400 hours a year, and an average laundry machine operator makes about $12 an hour.
"It's a lot of work," Burrell said, "and I'm exhausted by the end of the day."
For all that exhaustion, Salary.com figures Burrell's work is worth $148,000 a year.
"Really? Who do I collect from," Burrell asked, laughing.
Salary.com said the primary driver of a mother's six figure salary is the amount of overtime worked. This year, a mother's overtime averaged 54.4 hours per week, totaling a 94.4 hour workweek.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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