Moms Willing to Take Pay Cut for More Family Time
May 19th, 2008 by Jamie
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After the birth of my second daughter in 2005 I wanted to change my work schedule. Fortunately for me I work for a small company and my boss was willing to try the new arrangement. I also willingly took a pay cut so I could cut back from 5 to 4 days a week and work more from home.
Career and Kids featured a great post about working moms being willing to take a pay cut if it allows them to spend more time with their children. In fact, a Mother’s Day survey at Career Builders indicated that 43 percent of working mothers would be willing to make less at their jobs if it meant more family time.
I recently met a former colleague for lunch. She and I have many years of experience in writing and PR, having worked for the same private university in the early 1990s. She and I both have also willingly chosen to not pursue a hard core management career track in our field. We discussed how we’d rather have jobs that pay less, but that allow for flexible scheduling, than work 60 hours a week and make more money in our profession. Fortunately for us, the type of work we do allows for that, although we both realize those jobs are few and far between. Neither of us work in a supervisory role, and a great deal of what we do can be done from our home office in the event that we have a sick child or some other conflict. We seem to fall somewhere in between the stay at home moms and the hard core career moms and that’s fine with us.
What about you? Would you take a pay cut in order to spend more time with your family?
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May 19th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I did this exact thing. After the birth of my second child, I realized I could not keep up with the hours of my job. Since better hours were not forthcoming, I took a 25% pay cut and a huge demotion to move into a job that was less demanding of my time (and, unfortunately, my talents.)
I have not regretted it yet– my kids are 4 and 2, and I cannot get this time back.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I have had a similar experience. I have not taken a direct pay cut, but I have stayed with a company I would have otherwise left several years ago if they didn’t offer such great maternity benefits or flexibility. I am considering going part time, but at the moment I have not made that decision. Great topic!
May 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Thanks for the comments. I realize it’s not for everyone, but I definitely don’t regret my decision to work less! I am one of those moms who actually enjoys working outside the home, but I also don’t want to work insane hours and not get home until 6 o’clock every night!
My colleague I mentioned in the post told me that at her old (less flexible) job downtown, she was leaving her house about 7:10 in the morning and not picking her kids up at aftercare until 6 o’clock. After a while, that just gets tough!
May 19th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
After my daughter was born, I cut back both my pay and hours as an attorney. The firm couldn’t be flexible enough to adapt and in turn, that made it difficult for me as well. Being unhappy there, I moved on and now found a new firm: the perfect environment to keep practicing and be the mom I want to be.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I did this, almost. My sons and I moved from Mississippi to Alabama in 2000. Until then, I had worked full time jobs. When we moved over here, I found that daycare was a lot more expensive, so when I took a job here, I only worked part time. This allowed me to work while my sons were in school, and while it wasn’t necessarily a pay cut (and isn’t working from home), I think the principle is still the same.