Mother’s Day Index 2018: Mom’s value inches higher, but she’s not feeling it

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Often balancing full-time employment, kids, spouse and friend relationships, maintaining a household, and attempting some form of self-care, moms are exhausted. Just when she’s unwinding from job No.1, job No.2 begins – but without the financial incentive. Hours in the car with a Pandora toddler station, cleaning up uneaten spaghetti, and staying up late to figure out “New Math” doesn’t help pay the bills, but what if it did?

Yes, being a mother is its own reward, but…

Each year, Insure.com determines the monetary value of mom by assigning a value to common jobs that moms do in everyday child-rearing life. This year, mom’s overall annual wage ticked up just 1.9 percent to $68,875. And while that puts moms in the higher end of the middle-class earners, she won’t be feeling that increase thanks to a current inflation rate of 2.1 percent.

“I made a Pinterest board for that.”

Whether it’s a birthday party, a backyard barbecue, or that fundraising event at school, it seems that the value of someone who can handle all those logistics is getting a little recognition. This year, mom’s occasional job as a party planner saw an unprecedented increase of nearly 25 percent. Unfortunately, that bump was nearly completely countered by a roughly 22 percent drop in her wage as a much more time-consuming role: chauffeur.

The highest earning jobs for mom this year were as follows:

24.9 % – Meeting/Convention Planner
9.6% – Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses
6.5% – Private detectives and investigators

The jobs that have the lowest gain or lost wage were the following:

-21.9% – Taxi drivers and chauffeurs
-7% – Interior designer
2.1% – Personal care aides

Mother’s Day job values index 2018

BLS occupation title	Mother’s job description	Hours per week	Weeks per year	Mean Hourly Wage	Change from 2017	Annual Earnings
Cook	Cooking	14	52	$10.90	3.6%	$7,935
Taxi drivers and chauffeurs	Driving	9	52	$11.33	-21.9%	$5,300
Other teachers and instructors	Helping with homework	10	40	$20.50	4.3%	$8,200
Childcare Worker	Taking care of the kids	40	52	$11.85	5.1%	$24,648
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	Nursing wounds	2	12	$20.35	9.6%	$488
Maids and housekeeping cleaners	Cleaning up	10	52	$10.98	2.8%	$5,707
Meeting & Convention Planners	Planning parties	8	8	$26.60	24.9%	$1,702
Miscellaneous community and social service specialists	Summer activity planner	40	12	$19.78	3.1%	$9,492
Hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists	Haircuts	0.5	52	$13.03	4.2%	$339
Personal care aides	Shopping for the family	3	52	$11.98	2.1%	$1,868
Accountants and auditors	Family finances	0.5	52	$26.63	4.6%	$693
Grounds maintenance workers	Yard work	1	52	$13.13	4.6%	$683
Interior Designers	Fixing up the house	5	8	$21.43	-7.0%	$857
Private detectives and investigators	Finding out what the kids are up to	5	8	$24.08	6.5%	$963
TOTAL		148			1.9%	$68, 875

For Mother’s Day, Mom probably wants a nap

With only 168 hours in a week, you may be wondering how moms could possibly fit in 148 of household duties. Through the magic of multitasking, moms seem to have a supernatural ability to batch tasks and accomplish multiple chores at the same time. While the kids take a bath, Mom might supervise while folding a load of clean towels while thinking about from which bakery she’ll order the birthday cupcakes.

Why does the value of mom matter?

We all know that moms do a lot for the family unit, but why assign an actual value? The Insure.com team knows that for a partner, it’s unbearable to imagine what it would be like to cope with the loss of the other, but never considering what would happen to your family should your partner die is an injustice to your family and all of the work and love that’s put into it. That is why it is vital for families to have a financial safety net with a life insurance policy for mom.

The cost of peace of mind

The value of mom translates into just how much it would cost for the family to continue a normal daily routine without mom around, and yet, 36 percent of women in an annual poll by Insure.com reported that they cannot afford a life insurance policy. But with the value of mom’s reaching nearly $69,000 a year, most families cannot afford to be without one.

The second-most common reason that women don’t have a life insurance policy is because they have been provided one with an employer. Employer-paid life insurance is a terrific benefit, but it’s generally not enough to serve as income replacement for very long – usually only one or two times the salary. And since it’s not covering the additional expenses created by mom’s absence, it should be considered supplemental to a standard policy that follows you instead of the job.

Why do you not have a life insurance policy?

I can’t afford it. 36.28%
I have a life insurance policy provided by my employer. 19.86%
I’m saving in other ways to provide for my survivors. 14.24%
I do not have anyone to whom I would leave a death benefit 9.64%
I don’t like to think about or plan for death. 4.82%
I am healthy and don’t need it. 4.82%
I don’t think insurance is worth the cost. 4.36%
I don’t understand what life insurance covers. 4.25%
I don’t know how to purchase life insurance. 1.72%

Of the women who reported having either a term, whole or both types of life insurance policies, nearly a quarter reported paying $251-$500 annually for their policy – that’s less than $1.50 a day.

How much do you pay annually for your life insurance policy?

less than $250 18.37%
$251 – $500 24.30%
$501-$750 21.84%
$751-$1,000 14.78%
$1,001-$1,500 11.87%
$1,501-$2,000 5.04%
$2,001-$2,500 1.90%
More than $2,501 1.90%

If you’re not sure how much life insurance coverage you would need, simply visit Insure.com’s life insurance calculator to input some basic answers about your coverage needs and get an immediate estimate of the recommended policy amount.

Mom would want you to get a checkup.

According to the 2018 LIMRA and Life Happens Insurance Barometer, three out of five adults have some life insurance policy, but one in five adults report that they do not have enough life insurance. Our families and assets grow and change, and the policies that we put in place 10 years ago may no longer be the right fit. That’s why Insure.com created the Insurance Advisor, a tool designed to help you measure your current assets and understand any holes in coverage (life, health, auto or home insurance) you might have. Think of it like a checkup on the health of your insurance coverage.

Call your mother. Like, now.

For many, Mother’s Day is a time when we slow down to acknowledge everything that mom has done for us throughout our lives. And while no woodshop-born key hook rack or porcelain collectable can truly convey how much we love them, it’s important to make an effort to show mom just how much she means to us.

This year, make time for a valuable conversation, whether it’s with your spouse or your mom, to discuss what protections are in place for you and your family should the worse happen.

Methodology

“Mom’s value” is based on occupational wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and does not include a salary from work outside the home. It is calculated using a list of common household tasks that mothers often perform and rounded to the nearest dollar amount.

The survey data is based on a survey commissioned by Insure.com that asked more than 850 women about life insurance, including the price they paid annually and if they were without life insurance the reason why. The survey, conducted by Op4G, was fielded in December 2017.

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