Mothers. We love them for many reasons. They brought us in this world, nurture us, mould us and support us whenever we need them. We owe our mothers big time. Right?
Ever since our new Miss World Manushi Chillar has bowled judges of the pageant with her answer, everyone is going gaga over one old yet new topic "How much salary should be given to a mother?" Although mothers our there are doing their jobs selfishly and they never claim their dues, the reality is that the household tasks done by women are neither acknowledged as work nor do they get paid for them. A job where you work long hours, no fixed routine, no leaves, no promotion and extra work every now and then, I guess no one would like to apply for this strange type of role.
Being a mother myself, I never thought if I should be paid for my hard work. This could be because I am a working mother. I already get paid for my work in my office and this works as a boost for myself so that I can keep myself motivated to give extra back home. My mother is a homemaker. She spent all her life in raising her daughters and managing her house and extended family. I hardly found her sitting quietly. Although there was no office where she had to go, still she was occupied with N number of things all through her life. She took care of her kids. She was a personal chef for the family. She was an occasional counsellor for me and my father. And she was a nurse for all those relatives who stayed with us for their treatment in the city hospital.
Manushi also added in her answer that salary is not about giving CASH. It is giving respect and love to mothers as in the form of salary for their thankless job. She was right. We can't correctly calculate how much salary should be given to a mother. While searching for this topic, I googled the same line and I found some very innovative and informative results. So, in this post, I am going to share my finding and study.
In 2016 a survey is done by US website Salary.com and they came up with this infographic as "Salary for a Mother"
Salary.com surveyed more than 15,000 mothers in the US to find out what their most time-consuming works are and how much time they spend on each of them per week. Then they applied extensive salary formula to each job, factored in the number of hours worked including overtime, crunched all the numbers and Tadda.. an estimate of what mothers would make if they were paid an annual salary was ready.
If you look at this image (above), they have also mentioned how the role of a mother has changed with time. Conventional mothers were not Drivers or Tutors. But now, new age mothers are doing so many duties from being an Executive Housekeeper to a business runner. And based on current salary trend of the market, the gross salary of a Stay At Home Mother for her normal and extra working hours comes 143,102 Dollars. This is close to 91,03,180.00 rupees.
Similarly, Salary.com calculated salary for Working Mothers as well. And here is the result :
I don't think I need to explain it any further.
If you try to map this in Indian scenarios, a few things might get changed. Indian Mothers spend more hours in the kitchen. They spend more time in entertaining extended family and relatives. And thanks to our Indian culture, a working mother is supposed to do all her domestic chore despite staying out for work for more than 10 hours.
If you remember the famous Indira Nooyi interview, you must have realized that it doesn’t matter whether you are a clerk in a bank or head a multinational, your “second shift” begins at home.
The day Indira Nooyi was made President of Pepsico, she reached home late and find her mother at the door. In an interview, she recounted that her mother asked her to go out and get some milk. When she said she was going to be the president of PepsiCo, her mother calmly replied: “You might be president of PepsiCo. But when you enter this house, you are the wife, you are the daughter, you are the daughter-in-law and you are the mother. You are all of that. Nobody else can take that place. So leave that damned crown in the garage. And don’t bring it into the house.”
Five years ago, the then Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath had suggested that the invisible labour performed by homemakers should be quantified and they should be paid the amount by their husbands. Although the proposal was buried in 2012, Manushis answer in the final round of the Miss World pageant has brought it into the limelight again. How much Salary Should a Mother Get? What is your calculation?
Being a mother myself, I never thought if I should be paid for my hard work. This could be because I am a working mother. I already get paid for my work in my office and this works as a boost for myself so that I can keep myself motivated to give extra back home. My mother is a homemaker. She spent all her life in raising her daughters and managing her house and extended family. I hardly found her sitting quietly. Although there was no office where she had to go, still she was occupied with N number of things all through her life. She took care of her kids. She was a personal chef for the family. She was an occasional counsellor for me and my father. And she was a nurse for all those relatives who stayed with us for their treatment in the city hospital.
Manushi also added in her answer that salary is not about giving CASH. It is giving respect and love to mothers as in the form of salary for their thankless job. She was right. We can't correctly calculate how much salary should be given to a mother. While searching for this topic, I googled the same line and I found some very innovative and informative results. So, in this post, I am going to share my finding and study.
In 2016 a survey is done by US website Salary.com and they came up with this infographic as "Salary for a Mother"
Salary.com surveyed more than 15,000 mothers in the US to find out what their most time-consuming works are and how much time they spend on each of them per week. Then they applied extensive salary formula to each job, factored in the number of hours worked including overtime, crunched all the numbers and Tadda.. an estimate of what mothers would make if they were paid an annual salary was ready.
If you look at this image (above), they have also mentioned how the role of a mother has changed with time. Conventional mothers were not Drivers or Tutors. But now, new age mothers are doing so many duties from being an Executive Housekeeper to a business runner. And based on current salary trend of the market, the gross salary of a Stay At Home Mother for her normal and extra working hours comes 143,102 Dollars. This is close to 91,03,180.00 rupees.
Similarly, Salary.com calculated salary for Working Mothers as well. And here is the result :
I don't think I need to explain it any further.
If you try to map this in Indian scenarios, a few things might get changed. Indian Mothers spend more hours in the kitchen. They spend more time in entertaining extended family and relatives. And thanks to our Indian culture, a working mother is supposed to do all her domestic chore despite staying out for work for more than 10 hours.
If you remember the famous Indira Nooyi interview, you must have realized that it doesn’t matter whether you are a clerk in a bank or head a multinational, your “second shift” begins at home.
The day Indira Nooyi was made President of Pepsico, she reached home late and find her mother at the door. In an interview, she recounted that her mother asked her to go out and get some milk. When she said she was going to be the president of PepsiCo, her mother calmly replied: “You might be president of PepsiCo. But when you enter this house, you are the wife, you are the daughter, you are the daughter-in-law and you are the mother. You are all of that. Nobody else can take that place. So leave that damned crown in the garage. And don’t bring it into the house.”
Five years ago, the then Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath had suggested that the invisible labour performed by homemakers should be quantified and they should be paid the amount by their husbands. Although the proposal was buried in 2012, Manushis answer in the final round of the Miss World pageant has brought it into the limelight again. How much Salary Should a Mother Get? What is your calculation?
This post is for #MONDAYMOMMYMOMENTS and is linked with Deepa and Amrita.
Superb post. I loved your research on it. I believe a mothers salary cannot be calculated as motherhood is above every other profession or job in this world. It is a 24 by 7 and never ending job. There are no promotions and there is no retirement.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with you. The salary can never be calculated with considering mammoth of works mothers do all around the world.
DeleteWow! Such a well researched post. I'd be happy if I were paid half that amount. Thank you :-).
ReplyDeleteEven I also thought the same when I went through the research post for the first time :)
DeleteVery interesting article.The only problem.Mothers themselves feel guilty about wanting money.Thats the biggest problem
ReplyDeleteAgree.. such mothers need some counselling sessions for loving themselves.
DeleteIt is an excellent post and I really impressed with the hard work you had put to make it informative. yes! motherhood is an emotional journey that could not be considered as a job or a profession. it is purely a long lasting relationship that filled our life with uttermost joy and satisfaction. feeling great to get connected with you Shipra through mondaymommymoments, hoping to have long term relationship with you. happy new year!
ReplyDeleteLOved the reasearch, hands down for this incredible post. Mothers are such angels work non-stop for zero dough
ReplyDelete