Pay Mom what she's worth

It’s Mother’s Day again, and it’s time to smile and give your queen the honor of royalty today.

One very famous mother today is a British royal. Because she had a great smile (in contrast to some other British royals), my favorite queen is Elizabeth Angela Marguerite. She became known as "The Queen Mother" to avoid confusion with her daughter, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, who's now known as Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen Mother, aged 101, was formerly known as the Queen Consort, meaning she married the king but had no rights to the throne herself.

And what's a queen without a king? One of Elvis Presley’s film co-stars is now a mother ... a Reverend Mother, in fact. Dolores Hart, who appeared with the King in the motion pictures Loving You and King Creole, left Hollywood behind and moved to Connecticut in 1962 to serve a different King. Today, she’s prioress at the Abbey of Regina Laudis.

A little over a year ago, a Romanian woman plenty old enough to have grandchildren (or even great-grandchildren) became a mother for the first time. Adriana Iliescu became the world's oldest first-time mother when she gave birth to little Eliza Maria on January 16, 2006, at the age of 66. (Her record was broken by a 67-year-old mother later that year.) While in-vitro fertilization worked in Iliescu's case, it was reported that she found herself unable to breastfeed her baby. That’s too bad, because if she lived in Maryland, she wouldn’t have to pay sales tax on any breastfeeding equipment she purchased.

But she would probably not mind paying sales tax if she had earned what Salary.com has determined a Mom’s salary is worth this year. Based on its survey of more than 40,000 mothers, Salary.com determined that the time mothers spend performing 10 typical job functions would equate to an annual salary of $138,095 for a stay-at-home mom. This is a three percent increase over the 2006 salary of $134,121. 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. 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.

In past Mom Salary surveys, many playfully asked, “So, who will pay mom’s salary? This year, Salary.com worked with Abbott’s Similac brand to create a nationwide contest to answer this question. Abbott is holding the “Similac Mom’s $135K Payday” contest, which will award one mother with a full year’s salary in recognition for all her hard work. For more information, visit http://SimilacMomsPayday.com.

Unfortunately, since our retirement-age Romanian mother, Ms. Iliescu is unable to breastfeed, she is perhaps helping fund the contest by buying Similac for her bouncy baby girl.
Source: mentalfloss.com

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