You may have read about the study: If a stay-at-home mother was paid for the work she contributes to her family, she'd be making nearly $117,000 a year.

Why so high? The biggest reason, says Salary.com, which conducted the survey, is the amount of overtime pay mothers would be receiving for working more than 40 hours a week. The 18,000 moms surveyed about their typical week reported working 94.4 hours - meaning they'd be spending more than half their working hours on overtime.

Working moms reported an average 54.6-hour "mom work week" besides the hours they spent at paying jobs.

And what would their reward be today, Mother's Day? According to another survey, it would be less than a year ago.

Cost-conscious consumers have added the holiday honoring mom to the budget chopping block, planning to spend about 50 cents less on Mother's Day gifts this year. The average family will spend $138.63 on Mother's Day in 2008, down slightly from $139.14 last year, according to 6,888 consumers polled last month by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation. Close to 14 percent of those polled admitted they plan to spend less this year, citing the rising cost of living.

While you may contest the numbers, there is no doubt mothers work extremely hard and contribute much to their families and to society. It would actually be unfair, and unwise, to put a dollar figure on it.

Likewise, no monetary gift can say thank you to mothers for all of their contributions. The best gift is not necessarily a scrumptious meal or flowers or chocolates but some time doing whatever pleases mom the most.

In many cases, all mothers really want is the appreciation that they do work extremely hard, that they do contribute much to their families and to society.

But that appreciation should not be expressed just today but every day.

So happy Mother's Day to moms for everything you do throughout the year. It's worth far more than $117,000.