Many families are struggling to balance family and work while providing their children with quality care. Because of this, families have changed. In most two-parent families, both parents are in the workforce. Women are participating in the workforce in record numbers.
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The Makeup of Today's Workforce

Today:

  • Over three-quarter of women who have school age children are employed.
  • Sixty-five percent of mothers with children under the age of six are in the workforce.
  • More than ten million workers are single parents causing the number of single fathers to also increase.
    • One in every six single parents is a father.
    • There are 2.1 million single fathers in the workforce.

Not only are the numbers of parents, both single and couples, on the rise, but the number of hours spent on the job has increased by a minimum of 3.5 hours per week. This causes increased worki-family conflicts, a fact that takes up much of a family's physical and emotional energy.
The blue represents 78% of mothers with children over the age of six are employed. The purple represents 65% of mothers with children under the age of 6 are empolyed.*
* Source: "Marital and Family Characteristics of the Lbor Force," in Current Population Survey, March 1997, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Why Child Care Is So Important to Employers
According to a national survey, employers perceive that child care programs increase productivity, imporve recruitment opportunities and lower stress levels. With the the growing number o single parents and two income families, the need for quality child care has greatly increased. Many empolyers have responded by offering child care benefits. Listed below are some of the ways of extending child care benefits to your employees.
  • Onsite/Offsite Child Care Center: This is a center located on either the worksite or someplace else, but it is owned and managed by the empolyer or a union. If the employer did not want to staff the center, it could be staffed by a nonprofit or for-profit child care provider.
  • Public/Private Partnership: This is a site developed by private industry and public agencies working together to address the child care needs in their community.
  • Consortium Center: This is a site established by groups of employers sharing the cost and benefits of a child care center.
  • Resource and Referral Services: Employers can contract with local or nationa agencies to provide referrals to their employees. These services help parents locate child care providers.
  • Flextime: Employers may implement a work schedule that allows employees to vary their arrival and/or departure times to accomodate child care needs. The employees are responsible to work the amount of hours required by their positions.
  • Fexiplace-Telecommuting: Employees are allowed to work at home by setting up an offsite workplace via telephone and/or the Internet.
  • Compressed Workweek: A compressed work schedule enables a full time employee to work theri required hours in fewer days.
  • Job Sharing: Two or more workers share the duties of one full time job, each working part-time.

For more information on these and other programs for employer child care benefits, please visit "Workplace Care for Daycare or Childcare" at http://daycare.about.com/cs/workplacecare/.
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