With spotty school re-openings and an unrelenting crush of work, the caregiver crisis is real for working couples and single parents. How big of an issue is this? Two-fifths of all families in the US have at least one child under the age of 18; of those, 64% had both parents employed – that’s about 30 million families. There are also 10 million single working mothers today, and 5 million single working fathers. Working parents today rely heavily on schools to care for their children, and most don’t have a caregiver at home who is not working. Even for parents with the ability to pay for childcare, in the midst of a pandemic there are fewer options available to school-aged children.
The folks at Mercer created this helpful guide with ideas for increasing flexibility at work, improving leave policies, and launching programs such as online learning and care pods.
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