Did you know that there's a job that's worth $131,471 per year on the market and you don't need any experience to get it? To make matters more enticing, you won't even have to compete to get it. (Some 5.4 million people already have the job.) Interested? Keep reading.
The job is. (drumroll, please). being a stay-at-home mom. Sure, Dad might have a company car and a corner office. But he's probably not earning as much as good old Mom, who stays home to care for her family. The only minor glitch in this happy news for stay-at-home moms everywhere is that their hefty incomes are more theoretical than actual.
A recent survey by compensation specialists Salary.com revealed that the variety of jobs that stay-at-home moms perform would be worth $131,471 annually (including overtime pay) in the job market. The firm interviewed many moms and developed a list job descriptions and titles that corresponded with the women's regular tasks. Here are the top seven job titles, ranked in order of time spent doing each job, along with their national average annual salary: Daycare Center Teacher ($26,891), Van Driver ($30,762), Housekeeper ($18,750), Cook ($31,099), CEO ($612,623), Nurse ($56,113) and General Maintenance Worker ($29,656).
Salary.com noted: "The estimated average salary calculated by Salary.com's team of compensation experts for a stay-at-home mom is based on a 100-hour workweek, consisting of six 15-hour days and one 10-hour day.. Stay-at-home mom median salary assumes that the mother has at least two children of school age." It also pointed out that these women "are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
What does this mean for us? Well:
- If you're a stay-at-home mom, give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. If you're a working mom, chances are you're essentially working a second job worth a significant (though still, alas, theoretical) amount of money.
- If you're related to such a mom, make sure you express your appreciation. Buy her flowers (and not just on Mother's Day), stocks, and perhaps even a subscription to one of our investing newsletters, to help her make even better decisions regarding family finances and retirement planning. Moms often need to plan for their retirements extra carefully. Their Social Security income might be smaller than that of non-moms, since mom-work doesn't figure in on the Social Security books. (Read about 7 Social Security Myths.)
- If you're a mom looking to enter or re-enter the paying job market, don't sell yourself short when applying for jobs. Play up your relevant experiences and skills. Maybe your skills driving five kids to dozens of appointments each month can help you land a job with FedEx
(NYSE:FDX) . Perhaps your experiences raising your children make you perfect for a job with daycare specialists Bright Horizons(NASDAQ:BFAM) . Job seekers of all stripes will find good advice at AsktheHeadhunter.com.
Finally, here are some discussion boards of ours that may be of interest to you. Perhaps you might want to send a mom you care about to them:
- Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads
- Parents and Expecting Parents
- Parenting Teens and Young Adults
- Parents of an Only Child
- Adoption (kids, not technology)
- Single Parents
- Homeschooling
- Choosing Not to Have Kids
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.
