Study Finds Moms Should Earn More Than $66K For Their Stress

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It's been said that being a mother is one of the toughest jobs in the world.

So, if that's the case, moms should be making a pretty hefty salary, right?

Researchers looked into the idea of how much parents should make to compensate for the stress of having a child.

Researchers say they used data describing couples in Australia and Germany to examine how demographic events affect perceived time and
financial stress.

"Births increase time stress, especially among mothers, and that the effect lasts at least several years. Births generally also raise financial stress lightly. The monetary equivalent of the costs of the extra time stress is very large," according to the study.

Researchers determined that for mothers to be properly compensated they should make around $66,500.

"Since the largest immediate effect of a birth is on the time stress felt by new mothers, in attempting to monetize the costs of stress we concentrate on that particular form of stress," according to the study.

The research was published in a paper titled, "The Stress Cost of Children."