Employee child care benefits are provided by employers to help employees better manage the demands of working and parenting–and to help them solve three core problems: finding care, affording care, and navigating the complexities of care. Many employers also realize that by helping employees with parenting responsibilities throughout all stages of life–infants through college, working parents are less distracted and more focused at work. In 2023, nearly 50% of HR leaders surveyed said they are prioritizing child care benefits as a way to improve productivity.
Top 5 employee child care benefits
Here are the top employer-sponsored employee child care benefits available today:
- Child Care Marketplace: Help your employees with one of the greatest challenges—finding accessible care, by offering them access to an online caregiver marketplace. A caregiver marketplace, such as Care Membership, enables employees to browse caregiver profiles, message and interview caregivers, and book care with background-checked caregivers directly on the platform. This employer-sponsored benefit provides employees with unlimited access to the service, at no cost to the family, and helps them find trusted caregivers in their area.
- Backup Care: This employer-subsidized benefit helps employees find temporary care when their regular child care plans fall through—a child is sick and can’t attend day care, schools close, or the nanny goes on vacation, to name a few examples. Backup Care programs typically offer access to network in-home caregivers and centers for a low daily co-pay, making it affordable for employees to get to work even when their regular care is not available. The best programs also offer employees the flexibility to get reimbursed for using caregivers in their own personal network—a favorite center, babysitter or even a friend or family member—helping more employees get to work.
- Child Care Concierge and Navigation Services: Many employers also offer more hands-on support by providing access to child care experts who provide 1:1 guidance and coaching. Care Specialists, for example, provides 24/7 access to Child Care Specialists who help employees navigate virtually any child care and parenting need, including comprehensive disability and neurodiversity support. This service, offered at no cost to employees, improves productivity by saving employees hours of time and research and helping them navigate to the care resources they need.
- Child Care Discounts, Subsidies, and Savings Accounts. Employee discount programs are a great way to help employees save money on child care and parenting needs. Similarly, child care stipends offered by employers provide employees with a set amount of money to put toward child care expenses a year. Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts are another way to help employees use pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible dependent child care services.
- Tutoring and College Admissions Assistance: Employee child care benefits are not just for young children. Programs, such as On-Demand Tutoring, provide employees and their children with access to on-demand tutors and study resources for students elementary through college. Many employers also offer benefits to help with college admissions. Care for College, for example, provides access to college advisors and college planning tools at no cost to families, saving them time and money and helping navigate the time consuming and complex college-admissions process.
While these top benefits are trending, there are many other child care benefits available to employers—flexible schedules, maternity and paternity leave, breastfeeding support, mental health benefits and more. If you’re not sure what is best for your organization, use this template to survey your employees and use the data and results to help form your child care benefits strategy.
Why should your company offer employee child care benefits?
Working parents need support more than ever. For starters, the cost of child care is unaffordable for the majority of families. On average parents spend 28% of their household income on child care–four times what the Department of Health & Human Services deems affordable.
Further, it’s hard for employees to find care. The caregiver shortage is real–and with the recent loss of federal funding, referred to as the “child care cliff” more than 70,000 child care programs nationwide are expected to shut down.
This is not good news for employees or employers. When employees don’t have access to reliable, affordable care, they can’t work. In fact, 20% of working parents quit or reduce their working hours due to lack of child care, resulting in costly productivity losses for employers. Conversely, employee child care benefits that help employees find and afford care so they can work can decrease employee absenteeism by 30% and reduce job turnover by 60%.
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