The Case for Childcare

Learn

Illustration of a child waving on an orange background

Illustration of a person in an apron holding a serving plate

Illustration of a mother and child standing together

Childcare

is a

Business

opportunity

We’re a research collaborative making the Case for Childcare—to save huge costs for businesses & to empower advocates and parents.

Let’s build the future of Childcare.

Childcare

is a

Family

Gender

Economic

Workforce

Business

Issue

Opportunity

We’re a collaborative making the Case for Childcare—working alongside business and families to foster a more inclusive and prosperous future for all. Let’s build the business case for childcare.

Childcare

Family

gender

ecnomic

workforce

business

issue

opportunity

Illustration of a father holding a child on their shoulders on a green background

Illustration of a person in a blue suit holding a power pose

Childcare is an opportunity too expensive to miss

by investing in childcare policies employers see a huge return

Reduce missed work days

30%

Illustration of a mother and a child standing together

Increase employee engagement by

55%

Retain and
attract client by

60%

Illustration of a person wearing an apron holding a serving plate

Save the cost of
replacing a mother by

400%

Illustration of an early childhood educator carrying children

Childcare is an opportunity too timely to miss.

By investing in childcare policies and programs employers see a huge return

Reduce missed work days by

Illustration of a parent and child holding hands and walking

Source: ChildCare Aware

Increase retention and attraction of top talent by

Illustration of a person wearing a blue blouse and skirt holding a briefcase

Source: SHRM

Increase employee
engagement by

Source: SHRM

Earn an ROI for investing in
childcare of

Source: ChildCare Aware

Reduce missed work days
‍

Source: ChildCare Aware

Increase employee
engagement by

Source: SHRM

Retain and
attract client by

Source: SHRM

Earn an ROI for investing in
childcare of

Source: ChildCare Aware

We need to give attention to how deeply underpaid early learning educators are. Early educators themselves are often living in poverty and are not able to send their own children to the centers in which they teach.

Dr. Laura Justice

Executive Director of The Ohio State University Crane Center for Early Childhood Research & Policy

Childcare and benefits for parents cannot just be an employer offering or benefit, it will create a broken system, like how we have a broken system of healthcare. You can’t have a conversation about the care economy without talking about public funding – it’s just too expensive.

Anna Nordberg

Writer & Editor

The business community’s voice is a lot more powerful than individual voices. If they say something is an issue, it will be heard.

Aaron Merchen

Senior Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Our country has completely failed to do what most other industrialized nations take for granted: Build a care infrastructure.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Executive Director of Moms Rising

America has faced a childcare crisis for years. The supply is way below the demand, and many lower-income families either live in areas outside of major cities that are childcare deserts or barely scrape together tuition.

Reshma Saujani

CEO & Founder of Moms First

Domestic work is the work that makes all other work possible. America is deep in a care crisis that reaches every community across the country.

Ai-Jen Poo

President, National Domestic Workers Alliance

Meet your starting points.

The Big Picture

Understand the business case for childcare

Interactive Stories

Practice solving childcare challenges

Solutions

Childcare supports for every employer

The Collaborative
behind the research.

The Case for Childcare Collaborative formed in 2022 to explore the business case for supporting childcare. For many businesses, childcare is often seen as an expensive ‘nice-to-have’ but the responsibility ultimately rests with families themselves. After conducting a year of research and design sessions with our partners, we believe the cost of childcare cannot be shouldered by families alone. Childcare is an opportunity for businesses to enhance revenue, ultimately helping the bottom line while supporting parents, caregivers, families, and the future workforce for generations to come. In turn, childcare is a benefit to the economy, because a strengthened workforce builds a stronger economy.

Our Collaborative partnered together to dig through the evidence to make a practical Case for Childcare—so businesses can work alongside families to foster a more sustainable, inclusive and prosperous future for all.

And for 2024, we’re stretching our horizons further. Our focus will be on actively engaging employers of frontline, hourly, and gig workers to support childcare. In assessing the wider ecosystem of employer support for childcare, we found that frontline, hourly, & gig workers are often excluded from any childcare benefits that do exist. Leveraging the assets of our Collaborative, we aim to shed light on tactical ways businesses can provide childcare support and benefits so that all parents and caregivers can thrive in the workplace.

This research was supported by and designed with the organizations below. We are grateful for their partnership. The findings and conclusions presented on this website are those of the author(s) alone, and do not necessarily reflect the sole opinions of the following organizations.

American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

National Domestic Workers Alliance

Pivotal Ventures

Working for Women

NationSwell

We know that working in silos is too limiting to achieve the impact we seek.

The challenges we face call for collaboration and shared action. NationSwell Collaboratives convene cross-sector leaders committed to advancing progress on a specific issue. Together, we illuminate challenges and opportunities in that space and align on action to advance each other's work, and the industry as a whole.