Ramblings on Mothers' Day

I know today is Mothers' Day. With my wife complaining last night about its crass commercialization, how could I miss it? Thanks for that subtle reminder for a date, dear. Don't worry: this is your day, so you'll have your way. We're going out alright. But not before I have blogged :-)

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The hand that used to only rock the cradle ages ago now performs at least 10 job functions. If we were to put a label to a modern Mom's position today, the best fit would be "hybrid job description," according to Salary.com, a leading provider of on-demand compensation management solutions. This was revealed by a 2007 Mom Salary Survey involving over 40,000 respondents conducted by Salary.com :

The job titles that best matched a mom's definition of her work are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist.

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Now, if moms were to be paid a salary for those 10 job functions, how much do you think would they be worth? According to Salary.com's survey:

...the time mothers spend for 10 typical job functions would equate to an annual salary of $138,095 for a stay-at-home mom. This is a 3 percent increase over the 2006 salary of $134,121, but still nearly one percentage point below employers' prediction of an average 3.9 precent annual pay increase according to a Salary.com survey. Working Mom's 'at-home' salary is $85,939 in 2007--an increase of only $63 from last year; this is in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace.

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As Salary.com has acknowledged, moms who have spent time in the workforce are "talented", "experienced managers", "motivators", "decision makers" and "client specialists." Having said that, Sue Shellenbarger's article published in The Wall Street Journal on "How Stay-at-Home Moms
Are Filling an Executive Niche" no longer comes as a surprise.

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Said Sue Shellenbarger:

The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy "SWAT team." The acronym, for "smart women with available time," is one mother's label for all-mom teams assembled quickly through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects. Employers get lots of voltage, cheap, while the women get a skills update and a taste of the professional challenges they miss.

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There's more on the link I provided above for Ms. Shellenbarger's article. Just click it. Gotta go, my SWAT team leader's calling me now. Happy Mothers' Day!

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)