Dive Brief:

• The scarcity of child care benefits in the U.S. workplace is causing financial hardship, job performance problems and higher turnover rates for working parents, a Jan. 9 Clutch survey revealed.
• Only 6% of U.S. employers offer child care benefits or stipends, even though the average annual daycare cost for an infant or toddler is $11,666, said Clutch citing Child Care Aware of America. Clutch added that the lack of child care benefits disproportionately impacts women.
• Child care benefits range from on-site child care, care payment subsidies, back-up care subsidies, flexible work schedules, predictable schedules and flexible child care spending accounts.

Dive Insight:

Various pieces of research confirm Clutch's finding that child care benefits keep more women in the workforce. Wayne State University​'s Matthew M. Piszczek, for example, found in a recently published research paper that employers that offer the child care initiatives, such as those Clutch recommended, are lowering turnover rates among working mothers.

Workers in some organizations aren't taking the scarcity of child care benefits lightly; in March, 1,800 mothers at Amazon, known as "Momazonians," pushed for the giant tech-based retailer to offer back-up child care support. The group said it gathered anecdotal​ proof that the lack of back-up child care support hampered their chances of advancing in the company. In a statement to HR Dive at the time, Amazon didn't reference the mothers actions directly, but it issued this comment: "When creating benefits, we focus on efforts that can scale to help the largest number of individuals, and work in partnership with our employees to ensure that what we are building offers meaningful support."

In December, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted $1.1 million to The WorkLife Partnership, a nonprofit that connects front-line employees with resources and education to address challenges tied to child care​, housing, finances, healthcare and transportation.