Salary for Mommy

In what seems to be an annual tradition, Salary.com has compute the salary that a mom would earn in the workforce (Survey: 10 jobs moms work would bring in $138,095 a year - CNN.com). While I think it is important to appreciate moms and demonstrating the economic value of their work is one way to build some appreciation, I take issue with the analysis on some points.

In particular, they have included CEO and psychologist as "jobs" that a mother performs. That is just silly. CEOs manage companies with a large number of people, more than the size of a single family (even the Duggars and the rest of the quiver full set). If you want to liken the running of the family to the running of a business, then a small business owner would be a much more reasonable comparison. Given the average salary of CEOs, I would have to think that this would bring down the $138k figure significantly. Including psychologists likewise makes no sense. The fact that mothers counsel their family is not the same as receiving independent input from someone who has been professional trained in dealing with such issues. If mothers were accomplishing the same thing, there would not be so many people needing therapy. As this was one of the higher paying jobs on the list, I would think that the $138k figure would drop from this change as well.

My other issue with the survey is that it does not take into account how good these women are at the "jobs" they hold. If you actual did any of these jobs for a living, you could be fired. Not so for mothers unless the situation is dire. So, assuming they make the median wage without any consideration for training or ability seems generous. I guess it might work out on average, but in many cases the real value is much lower.

On the other hand, the value of a mother's role goes far beyond the value of the roles she performs. This value, however, cannot be readily quantified.

In conclusion, I hope everyone will show how much they appreciate their mothers on mothers' day (and every day); but, we should not mistake the Salary.com survey for anything but an entertaining view on the work of mothers.