Working Parents Need Support: Start with These 3 Helpful Benefits. Learn how the right benefits can support struggling working parents. The right benefits strategy for your team improves quality of life and wellness.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be challenging for any employee, but it’s particularly tough for working parents. According to Ohio State University’s parenting report, as many as 66% of working parents are burnt out and want help managing their home and work lives. However, they lack a practical and affordable means of receiving this support.
On top of these demands, childcare costs have grown astronomically over the past decades. Families spend an estimated 27% of total household income on childcare costs, according to data from Care. When parents can’t compete with these costs, they may be forced to alter their career paths, reducing their working hours and delaying advancement to focus on their children.
Working parents make up a significant portion of the U.S. workforce — an estimated 40%, according to Glassdoor — and the unique challenges they face require thoughtful solutions. Employers can take direct action to support the parents on their teams with these 3 helpful benefits.
The 3 most helpful benefits for working parents
1. Offer working parents a break with on-site childcare services.
Working parents often rely on childcare services to care for their children while at work, whether it be daycare, babysitting or afterschool programs. However, since childcare costs have risen post-pandemic, many working parents struggle to find affordable childcare options. Without childcare, some employees may have to call out of work to care for their children.
Today, 1 in 5 parents with children under 18 cite childcare expenses as the leading source of their financial stress, according to NerdWallet’s 2024 Cost of Raising Children report. This isn’t surprising as 1 in 7 parents said they spend more on childcare each month than their rent or mortgage payments. Over time, this financial practice can lead to long-term financial insecurity for working families.
On-site childcare reduces working parents’ commuting time and childcare costs. Moreover, offering on-site childcare can help mitigate the anxiety that some remote and hybrid workers feel about returning to the office. Knowing their child or children) are close throughout the workday can provide comfort and peace of mind.
2. Provide childcare subsidies and discount benefits to your team.
Even for companies without the resources to offer on-site childcare, there are other ways to support parents in the workplace.
To help families afford the rising childcare costs, some companies have added childcare subsidies and discounts to their benefits package. For instance, some employers partner with local daycare, afterschool and childcare providers to offer employee discounts. Others have instituted reimbursement programs, where employees can be reimbursed up to a certain amount for childcare expenses.
Every workplace has its own employees with individual needs, so consider which subsidies and discounts resonate most with your workforce. Feel empowered to ask employees directly, either through anonymous surveys or live group discussions.
3. Help working parents anticipate and adapt to childcare costs with accessible financial education.
Over 20% of parents say they don’t want more children due to the high costs of raising a child, according to NerdWallet’s 2024 report. And 1 in 3 non-parents don’t want any children for the same reason. The costs of child-rearing go far beyond basic childcare expenses. Most families can expect to spend around $300,000 to raise a child from birth through age 17, according to estimates by CreditKarma and the Department of U.S. Agriculture.
Financial wellness and literacy benefits can help the working parents on your team to anticipate and adapt to these costs over time. Current and future parents can learn how to adjust their existing budget and support their new child through all stages of life — from preschool through college.
For instance, at some point, children will mature and no longer need childcare or babysitting. With the right education, parents can understand their options and make plans for their money once childcare is no longer needed, such as investing in a 529 college plan. Budgeting tools can help families prepare for large one-time expenses like a crib or stroller, while managing other household expenses. Families can even use these tools to build savings for long-term goals, like a child’s future college education.
Best Money Moves is a mobile-first financial wellness solution designed to help dial down employees’ most top-of-mind financial stresses. As an easy-to-use financial well-being solution, Best Money Moves offers comprehensive support toward any money-related goal. With 1:1 money coaching, budgeting tools and other resources, our AI platform is designed to help improve employee financial well-being.
Whether it be retirement planning or securing a mortgage, Best Money Moves can guide employees through the most difficult financial times and topics. We have robust benefits options for employers, regardless of their benefits budget.
Our dedicated resources, partner offerings and 1000+ article library make Best Money Moves a leading benefit in bettering employee financial wellness.
To learn more about Best Money Moves Financial Wellness Platform, let’s schedule a call. Contact us and we’ll reach out to you soon.
