I saw on CNN today that Salary.com had released its most recent numbers valuing the unpaid services of being a mother. This whole line of thought interests me a lot from a financial and tax policy perspective. I tried a few times to draft a post about this subject but kept coming back to the post that I wrote last year. So here it is, in its entirety (note that the numbers in the post are from 2007):
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Years ago, in my Tax Policy class, we had a discussion about the value of intangible labor. The discussion was whether it was appropriate to quantify (and therefore, tax) the value of work brought into a home.
Sound “out there”? Not really. Salary.com basically does the same thing (minus the taxing part) every year as part of its efforts to determine the “worth” of a the work of a stay at home mom. This year, they’ve determined that the predicted annual salary of a stay at home mom, if paid out, would be $138,095. Working moms are valued at $85,939, in addition to the mother’s “professional” salary.
I have been highly critical of the report in the past, and am again. And it’s not because I don’t think being a mother is hard work – as the mother of three small children, I heartily agree that there are challenges that we face every day that would make grown men cry.
But the point of the article is to assign a dollar value per hour to each of the tasks that a mom does during the day. I assume that quantifying it by breaking the “duties” into discreet tasks is meant to add some sense of value to what it is that we do every day. But I think using terms like “CEO”, “computer operator” and “psychologist” both devalue and trivialize what it is that we mothers do.
When I get paid as an attorney, my worth is based on a number which takes into consideration my level of education, my level of experience and the hours that I work. My salary is not based on how many hours I do my own typing, answer my own phone or counsel my staff on issues. In fact, I don’t know of any job that is compensated based on individual job activities. Additionally, there are no adjustments for sick days, vacation days and other “perks” that employees receive but mothers do not. So, realistically, I think the study falls flat.
Salary.com also references being a stay at home mother as a “Dream Job”, another euphemism that I think cheapens the role of mother. “Dream Jobs” are usually those jobs which are viewed as cushy, those that pay a great deal or carry considerable clout or prestige. Being a mother doesn’t do that. There’s no “pay” and arguably, the amount of clout and prestige that we assign to motherhood as a job, is woeful.
Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I think that being a mother, whether a stay at home mother or a working mother, is an enormous job. I do believe that the contributions of mothers to society are routinely ignored and/or undervalued. But attempting to classify the job of being a mom into artful roles doesn’t change that – and I would argue that it makes it worse. Why can’t we just say that being a mom, in and of itself is important? Why do we feel the need to “boost our image” by comparing ourselves with CEOs? Why do we need to attach an hourly rate to our daily activities to give validation to what it is that we do?
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