Mother working with young child.
As workers continue to return to the office, parents are making quality child care a top priority.
“The child care crisis is intensifying the gender pay gap as more parents are choosing child care over raises and advancing their career,” according to the latest KinderCare Confidence Index. “This underscores the increased value parents place on having quality child care for their families. With the majority of working parents back in the office full-time or in a hybrid capacity, many have found it difficult to adjust to the return to office.“
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As a result, parents are looking to their employers for enhanced benefits:
- Three-fourths of parents believe employers should offset the cost of child care for their employees.
- Sixty percent would rather have their employer subsidize their child care costs than give them a raise, a 10% increase from 2024 survey results.
- Fifty-four percent of parents are worried that their company will scale back child care benefits in the future to cut costs, a 10% increase from 2024.
However, these priorities often are not aligned with what chief human resource officers consider important. Forty-three percent of parents believe child care benefits are crucial, compared to just one-third of CHROs. “Based on these findings, employers have a clear opportunity to alleviate child care stress and meet their employees’ needs by offering more customized family care benefits, including employer-sponsored child care,” the report said.
A majority of respondents would like to see the government provide assistance if their employer doesn’t. Eight in 10 believe child care is a national issue that should be federally addressed and funded by political leaders, and 45% hope universal child care will be federally supported in their children’s future
“Parents are telling us loud and clear that they need quality child care solutions more than ever, reflecting its essential role in the lives of modern families striving to achieve work-life integration,” said Jessica Harrah, chief people officer for KinderCare Learning Cos.
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
