Mrs. Romney, take heart -- and $112,000

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- The average mother in the United States is worth $112,000 per year, an annual study with an election year spin has concluded.

Salary.com's annual survey of thousands of mothers raising their kids concluded that the work that includes cooking, cleaning, counseling and chauffeuring – not to mention the grueling hours – would net a worker $112,000 in pay, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

The study has political value this year, as it was released not long after Hilary Rosen, a strategist for the Democratic Party, said that Ann Romney, wife of Republican forerunner Mitt Romney, "Never worked a day in her life."

That comment flared up in news reports without any help from the study. But the timing could hardly be more appropriate.

"That's laughable. Moms absolutely have value. They work -- and they work a lot," said Aaron Gouevia, content manager at Salary.com.

Author Ann Crittenden, who wrote "The Price of Motherhood," said she was dismayed that women were fighting amongst themselves over the value of mothering. "Women can't seem to stop being judgmental of each other, which is a tragedy, because 'divided you shall be conquered,'" The New York Times quoted her as saying.