In the United States, support for sustainable working parenthood is viewed as a privilege, not a basic right, as treated in other modern economies. Legislation for national plans around paid family leave and subsidized child care have stalled repeatedly for decades, leaving solutions up to state government or the private sector.
Indeed, business support for employees who have caregiving obligations is becoming more common, due to 1) the new visibility around these needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, and 2) the emergence of a new-generation workforce of all genders and ages that is embracing caregiving as an identity label. As many as 73% of workers have caregiving responsibility in their families—whether for babies, older kids, or aging loved ones—and it’s become increasingly clear that working parenthood is a marathon, not a sprint.
Business policies that support family life—parental leave, caregiving benefits, flexible policies and more—are both practical and emblematic, signaling organization-wide values. They can also improve equity, especially when employers offer benefits (like backup child care or on-ramping programs for new moms) to employees in lower-paying fields who are already more likely to be from marginalized groups and more likely to be pushed out of the workforce due to caregiving responsibilities.
As working parents become more emboldened to push for caregiving benefits—83% of women and 81% of men with children ages 0-5 said that child care support would be an important factor in whether they’d stay or switch employers—the time is ripe to reframe the cultural narrative around support for caregivers in the workforce. Caregiving support is not “bells and whistles” but a vital pillar of profitability, with calculable R.O.I., that makes sense for all businesses and all employees.
Through first-person case studies and a survey of 300+ employees, our research uncovered a primary finding: workplace support for parenthood drives profits. Contrary to the stereotype of the distracted, overwhelmed, disheveled mess, our data shows that parents are not “quiet quitting” anything. Their caregiving responsibilities compel them to seek meaning, flexibility, and benefits like child care specifically because of their ambition to create value. The upshot: When businesses support parents’ caregiving needs, they get back their most productive, and profitable work ever.
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