Dad worth $10k less than mom

Men may receive higher salaries in the workplace, but the annual value of services provided by a stay-at-home dad is $128,755 - or nearly $10,000 less than those provided by a stay-at-home mom.

That's the money quote from a new study issued just in time for Father's Day by Salary.com Inc., a Waltham firm whose software and databases help employers set salaries and manage performance.

Stay-at-home dads remain "relatively elusive," according to Salary.com, which cites US Census Bureau estimates that there were 159,000 stay-at-home dads in 2006, compared with 5.6 million stay-at-home moms.

To determine the salary equivalents for work performed by stay-at-home dads, Salary.com said it consulted both stay-at-home dads and working dads and used the survey results to rank the 10 top jobs that comprise a working dad's job description; next, all 10 of those jobs were assigned a dollar value based on the number of hours the respondents spent on each job.

"We calculated the multiple jobs that make up the role of dad to highlight their contribution in the home and to compare the amount and value of their work to mom," Meredith Hanrahan, Salary.com's chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "The findings do indicate that while dad's work is substantial, he is still paying catch-up to mom."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)