Stay-At-Home Moms Should Be Paid $178,000 A Year To Care For Their Kids, New Report Suggests

A new report suggests that stay-at-home moms should be paid more than $178,000 a year for the hours of work they put in raising their children. Salary.com releases an annual salary based on hours, work performed, and wages in comparable fields every year and found that as of 2019, being a stay-at-home parent is worth $178,201 based on a 96-hour workweek.

1. Many people don’t believe being a stay-at-home parent is work. There are some people who believe that if you choose to have children, caring for them is simply part of the task and isn’t actually considered “work.” This is because many parents aren’t in a financial position in which they can stay home to dedicate 24/7 to their kids and have to hold down jobs outside the home as well as looking after their little ones.
2. Being a parent is hard work regardless of any other work situation. Raising kids is incredibly difficult. It’s exhausting, time-consuming, frustrating, and yes, rewarding. Between playing with them, educating them, keeping them fed and clean, ensuring they stay safe, dealing with temper tantrums, and any number of other things that come up, there’s no doubt that being a parent is definitely hard work.
3. Salary.com compared being a stay-at-home parent to similar jobs. They believe it’s on par with that of a teacher, judge, nurse, psychologist, and coach, likely because stay-at-home parents perform many of those same roles all in one.
4. While stay-at-home parents will never be paid, it’d be great if they were valued. We should all respect parents more. Sure, they could have chosen not to have children, but just because they did doesn’t mean what they’re doing doesn’t count as hard work. “Parents hold the ultimate hybrid job at home. They’re CEOs, judges, academic advisors, and so much more,” said Sarah Reynolds, Vice President of Marketing at Salary.com. “The role of Mom requires a diverse skillset that commands serious market value in the talent market, and with new demands on Mom’s time arising every day, we only expect their market value to increase in the future. The immense dedication and work ethic of modern moms does not go unnoticed or unappreciated, and we were not at all surprised at the increased salary we calculated this year, nor do we expect this pace of growth to slow over the next five years.”