If your spouse is like the 70 percent of other working mothers in the U.S., she’s bringing home a literal paycheck while doing a lot of other tasks — all which Salary.com has appraised for the 16th year in a row in order to figure out what her paycheck would be. As it turns, out you’re very, very right for valuing her as much as you do. According to their salary data and the daily tasks reported by moms surveyed, in 2016 your wife could have earned $90,222 on top of her regular income for the additional 59 hours she works per week — you know, if she wasn’t doing it in your home. If she’s a stay-at-home mom, that number has spiked to $143,000 a year for 92 hours per week.

As early as 2011 this number was only projected at $53,471 for working mothers and $115,432 for stay-at-home ones. Experts attribute this nearly $40,000 salary jump to the changing role of moms managing technology at home. On top of more traditional roles such as cook, nurse, nutritionist and psychologist, modern moms also function as network administrators for family computers, as well as accountants, buyers, photographers and even social media managers, monitoring social interactions and sharing updates with friends and family. Maybe one reason women aren’t well-represented in STEM fields is because, as the only one in your house who can figure out how to establish a cloud-based photo feed for the grandparents, they’re too damn busy to apply.

ADVERTISEMENT

In other words, your spouse must really love you and your family because she’s not asking for a raise. And if she occasionally gets overwhelmed and threatens to go on strike, can you really blame her? While simply forking over your own salary to her won’t help the family finances any, consider Mother’s Day a great opportunity for reimbursement. Not only will the right gift make her feel like the employee of every month that she is, but it will save you around 90k.

Thanks for the feedback! Oops! Something went wrong. Please contact support@fatherly.com

[H/T] Salary.com