It is appropriate for Mother's Day to contemplate what a stay-at-home mom would make if she received monetary compensation for her labors and good deeds.

Her market value would be about $117,000 a year, according to Salary.com, a Waltham, Mass.-based firm that researches workplace compensation.

In its eighth annual survey of a mom's market value, the experts examined pay levels for 10 jobs that she performs, such as housekeeper, day care teacher, van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer. (Only 10 jobs?)

Actually, the company figured the pay precisely at $116,805. A mom who juggles an outside job with her home duties would receive $68,405 for her motherly tasks.

Some 18,000 moms answered survey questions about their typical week and reported working 94.4 hours. That's a lot of overtime in a workplace job. But even the moms working outside the home reported an average 54.6 hours in their "mom work week," apart from their paying job.

One mom told the Associated Press the six-figure salary seemed to be on the low side. Samantha Russell of Freemont, N.H., who is raising two boys, ages 2 and 4, said: "I think a lot of people think we sit at home and have a lot of fun and don't do a lot of work. But they should try cleaning their house with little kids running around and messing it up right after them."

The reward is not "monetary," she noted, but "knowing that they're safe and happy," she said of her sons, adding, "It's worth it all."

Typical mom. The truth is, you cannot put a monetary value on America's most important job, calling, labor of love, call it what you will.

We honor our mothers today for that, but also for who they are, and for the special bond between mother and child that is inviolable, influential, wondrous and true.