Motherhood – the Most Underpaid, Underqualified Uber-Job?

As I was negotiating a peace treaty between one of my kids and my husband the other day, it occurred to me that being a mother is actually an amalgamation of many, many, many jobs. The majority of us Moms have little or no training for any of theses roles other than the on-the-job training we receive every day.

What’s more, we are unpaid for our Mommy uber-job (other than in hugs and kisses which I love, of course, but which do not pay for the mortgage or groceries.) In fact a recent Salary.com study calculated the true worth of us Moms. According to an article in Fiscal Times:

… after all the various duties are added up, stay-at-home moms put in 94.7 hours in a typical workweek, and it would cost $112,962 a year to replace her. For working moms, the extra 57.9 hours a week of work they put in is worth $66,979.

So, it took me about 30 seconds to come up with the following list of all the jobs that Mom does (got any to add?):

• Nurse
• Short-order cook
• Investigator (which one of you spread ketchup all over the bathroom floor?)
• Mediator
• Therapist
• Artist
• Handyman
• Teacher
• Event planner
• Administrator
• Secretary
• Financial advisor
• Personal shopper
• Stylist
• Photographer
• Hazmat cleanup
• Decorator
• Archivist
• Lobbyist
• Chauffeur
• Coach
• Housekeeper
• Diplomat
• Comedienne
• Forensic investigator (is that chocolate – or poop?)

With all this acquired experience and talent, you’d think the employers would be moving heaven and earth to attract more Moms back to the workforce – and providing us with more flexible working arrangements.

But that, my friends, is another topic for another post, another day.

(I’d like to thank my sister-in-law and a couple of my friends for their inspiration and input to this post. Rock on, Moms!)

Posted by samanthamcgarry on May 4, 2012

https://samanthamcgarry.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/motherhood-the-most-underpaid-underqualified-uber-job/