Tessa Byars has observed friends reduce their hours at work, switch to part-time positions, and even switch careers in an effort to balance paying bills and child care.
But 40-year-old Byars never doubted that she would have to follow suit. Her employer, Patagonia, offered onsite childcare at her internal communications office in Ventura, California, as well as 16 weeks of paid maternity leave. Byars was able to take the time she required to raise her two children thanks to these perks, and when the time was right, she was able to bring them both back to work with her.
Naturally, I won’t say it was simple because I was a new mother, Byars stated. But I was able to continue working, and my kids were nearby.
Byars “was able to visit them anytime” because her kids lived next door, whether it be to nurse them as babies, feed them as they grew older, wake them up for naps, or just “drop in for three to five minutes when they were feeling sad.”
Byars is a shining example of what can be gained when businesses give family-friendly practises top priority, according to campaigners and economists. However, they would also point out a significant flaw in Byars’ story: the perks she received were the exception rather than the rule and were given out at the employer’s discretion in the private sector.
The difficulties brought on by the epidemic and an intensifying “battle for talent,” as business newspapers have dubbed it, have compelled an increasing number of businesses to offer higher compensation and improved benefits during the past few years. These benefits have frequently included sizable paid family and medical leave as well as, to a lesser extent, child care benefits. The latter can take the form of extra flexibility to juggle obligations, credits to use at an offsite facility, the chance to work remotely, or the onsite child care Byars utilised.
However, these benefits are still more prevalent in the kinds of high-paying, more flexible white-collar industries where employees are less likely to require these supports than carers in lower-paying, in-person jobs, according to advocates. Though congressional Democrats were briefly prepared to enact universal childcare and paid leave as part of their party-line spending bill in 2020, those initiatives ultimately failed due to opposition from influential moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
Economists now caution that governments’ complacency and the ensuing reliance on companies to manage paid leave and child care are dividing the workplace into two distinct spaces for women and risking a long-term worsening of racial and gender inequality.
According to Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, “all the benefits that come from having a better job, being a white-collar worker, having more education, and having a higher income — all the benefits are far more likely to accrue to you because employers will do more to try to attract and retain you because they have to.” “Those [similar] inequities are going to exist without politicians seeking to level the playing field there.”
The effects can be felt for many generations. Benefits like paid time off and child care impact caregivers’ lifelong earning potential as well as their capacity to manage work-life balance: Studies have demonstrated time and time again that having access to paid leave and child care frees up women to earn the promotions and raises necessary to provide for their families. According to Byars, Patagonia does in fact largely credit its equal representation of male and female leaders to its child care and paid leave privileges.
It’s obvious that since you already make low earnings, there will be interruptions if you don’t have access to paid time off and child care. You might lose your job. According to Brigid Schulte, who directs New America’s Better Life Lab and is currently writing a book on gender inequality in the workplace, you might not get the next promotion because you’re not viewed as dependable. Overall, she continued, “you’re going to be lucky to remain afloat.”
It’s a discrepancy that threatens to widen the economic gap, especially for women at the higher and lower ends of the salary scale.
The absence of government caregiver policies also gains importance as a recession approaches and businesses want to reduce expenses. Some businesses have already started to reduce these benefits: According to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional trade association for HR personnel, fewer employers (35%) this year than in 2020 offered paid maternity leave above and beyond what was mandated by law. According to Reshma Saujani, founder of the Marshall Plan for Moms, an organisation that works with employers to develop family-friendly policies, in a downturn, “the first thing that they’re cutting is paid leave and child care.”
The reductions highlight another worry that supporters have about leaving these benefits up to employers: If businesses have the option to make changes with significant social and economic benefits, they also have the option to easily undo them.
