The Most Expensive Job in the World Pays Nothing — Here's What We Can Do About It

To every mother reading this: we see you.

We see you in the school run at 8am, already mentally running through the day ahead.

We see you in the meeting, the kitchen, the 3am wake-up, the packed lunch, the permission slip you remembered when nobody else did.

We see you holding everything together, quietly and consistently.

You are doing the most important work in the world. And you deserve a moment to actually feel that.

So before we go anywhere else - take a breath.

And acknowledge yourself for everything you carry.

Not just today, on the one Sunday a year the world remembers to say thank you.

But every single day.

You are extraordinary.

And precisely because you are - because you give so much, so consistently - we want to talk about something that often gets lost in the love.

Something that rarely makes it onto the Mother's Day card.

Your financial future.

Because you deserve to be celebrated and protected.

Not just today, but in ten, twenty, thirty years from now.

The women who give the most deserve to retire with the most.

And right now, that's not the reality.

This Mother's Day, we want to change that. Together.

The quiet financial penalty of being a mum

Let's talk about what the data actually shows - because it's uncomfortable, and it matters.

Unpaid care work

Every day, women around the world do 16 billion hours of unpaid care work - cooking, cleaning, childcare, school admin, the doctor's appointments, the mental load.

And none of it shows up in anyone's salary.

According to UN Women, women do 2.5 times more unpaid care work than men every single day - and 45% of working-age women are outside the labour force entirely because of those responsibilities, compared to just 5% of men.

The motherhood penalty

When children arrive, the financial hit is immediate and lasting. According to the ONS, five years after having a first child, mothers' monthly earnings are on average 42% lower compared to their earnings the year before the birth.

And it compounds with every child.

For mothers of three, the total lost earnings add up to more than £124,000.

Economists call it the motherhood penalty.

In Europe alone, 60% of the gender pay gap is directly linked to motherhood - not because women lose ambition, but because they cut back paid hours or leave work altogether when childcare is unaffordable and parental leave isn't adequate.

The pension gap this creates is staggering.

Today, women retire with significantly less pension wealth than men - and the gap starts opening the moment a first child arrives, doubling by a woman's 40s, and widening with every subsequent child.

This is not a story about women making bad choices.

It is a story about a system that has consistently undervalued the work that holds everything together.

It's structural. It's well-documented. And it's fixable - but only if we start talking about it.

If you're a daughter, this one is for you

You might be reading this thinking about your mum.

The things she carried quietly. The choices she made without making a fuss. And perhaps - like so many women of her generation - money was never something she talked about openly.

Not because it didn't matter, but because nobody ever really told her it was hers to talk about.

This Mother's Day, alongside the flowers and the phone call, here's something else worth considering.

Have the money conversation.

It doesn't have to be formal or scary. Ask her, gently:

• Does she feel financially secure?
• Does she know what her pension is worth?
• Does she have savings that are hers?

Sometimes just asking the question opens a door that's been closed for decades.

Share what you know.

If being part of this community has shifted how you think about money, pass it on.

• Send her an article.
• Share a podcast episode.
• Show her that investing isn't complicated or intimidating - it's just a skill, and it's never too late to learn it.

Put her first for once.

The women who raised us are often the last ones to ask for help.

This Sunday, turn it around.

Not intrusively - just lovingly.

A conversation about her financial future is one of the most meaningful things you can give her.

If you are a mother, read this

If you've carved out five minutes to read this - we're glad you're here.

There's something we want you to hear, and we mean it gently: it's okay to think about yourself too.

Your financial future isn't a luxury or an afterthought.

It sits right alongside everything else you're building for your family - not separate from it.

If you've taken a step back from your career, or simply never had the headspace to think about investing - that makes complete sense.

Life got full. You made it work.

But you don't have to stay in that place forever, and you don't have to figure out the next step alone.

Wherever you're starting from, you're not behind. You're just beginning.

And beyond all of that - you are the most important financial role model your children will ever have. The way you talk about money, the way you engage with it, the confidence you build around it - they are watching all of it.

Every small step you take for your own financial future is a lesson they'll carry for the rest of their lives.

The conversation that changes everything

Financial knowledge is one of the most powerful things one woman can pass to another.

And it turns out -- women are already doing it.

In a recent survey of our Female Invest community, the results stopped us in our tracks:‍

• 76% of our members have increased their savings since joining.
• 90% say they have become more confident investors since joining. In a world that has spent decades telling women that investing "isn't for them," that number means everything.‍
• And 66% have started investing or significantly increased their investing since joining Female Invest. For many of them, it was the very first time.

These aren't just numbers.

They are women who decided that their financial future was worth showing up for.

Women who chose knowledge over fear, community over isolation, and action over waiting until they felt "ready."

That's what happens when women learn together.

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This Mother's Day, the greatest act of love might just be a conversation.

One that starts with "Mum, can I ask you something?" - and ends with both of you feeling a little more empowered, a little less alone, and a lot more in control of what comes next.

And we'd love to hear from you: what's one money lesson you got from your mum — or wish you had?

Share it in the comments below.

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And if this article moved you, don't keep it to yourself.

Use the share button to send it to a mum in your life.

Because some gifts are worth more than flowers.

Sources:

• https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-what-is-unpaid-care-work-and-how-does-it-power-the-economy
• https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/theimpactofmotherhoodonmonthlyemployeeearningsandemploymentstatusengland/april2014todecember2022