The price of a mother's job

If mothers are paid for cooking and caring for their families, they could easily earn a six-figure salary, says study.

If mothers were paid for cooking, cleaning and caring for their families they could easily earn a six-figure salary, according to new calculations.

After asking 18,000 mothers to list their most common tasks such as cooking, cleaning and childcare, a salary compensation company determined the value of their job functions to calculate what they could earn if they were paid.

In Canada the 10 most popular jobs performed by a stay-at-home mother would equate to a $124,280 salary, including overtime, and almost $75,000 for a working mother, in addition to her real salary.

"The most common misconception is that being a stay at home mom is easier than working. The moms are sitting home, eating bonbons and watching Oprah," said Lena Boltos, of Salary.com which conducted the survey and made the calculations.

"But moms are responsible for a lot. Kids nowadays lead more hectic lives than they ever did. Mom's really running the home business," she added in an interview.

The salary calculations were based on the top ten jobs mothers said they did at home and the hours they spent doing them each day. The numbers were then compared to the market value each job was worth.

Without adding overtime the average base pay for both groups would be $41,600.

In addition to housekeeping and daycare, other jobs on the list included laundry machine operator, computer operator, psychologist, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and janitor.