Stay-at-Home Mom Salary Now Valued at $185K Per Year
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.
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 75th 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.”
