There’s a lot to think about when deciding to have children – for many it isn’t an easy decision, especially when considering the impact on your career and your finances. Will your employer give you enough parental leave? Can you afford to take time out of work if you need to? Is childcare an affordable option?
To try and understand the impacts these issues have on the lives of US workers, Easy Offices, a leading provider of Office Space to rent, *surveyed over 2000 people across the country to ask how they felt about these topics.
When thinking about the decision to have kids, the amount of money we have and earn (or don’t have or earn) is a big factor – nearly 1 in 4 (25.6%) of Americans say that they would like children, but can’t afford to, rising to over 1 in 3 (37.6%) for people in the state of Texas, followed by New York (33.3%) and Georgia (29.9%).
The cost of childcare is likely a big part of this, with 23.9% in the US reporting that this expense was a reason that they decided against parenthood – this was most common in for people living in or near Washington DC, where almost 1 in 4 (24.2%) agreed, followed by Detroit (20.5%) and New York (20.4%). Younger age groups were more likely to agree than older (40.7% of 16-24 year olds vs 24.8% of 35-44 year olds). Women (22.63%) were slightly more likely to agree with this than men (21.6%).
Has the cost of childcare forced potential parents to consider leaving work behind altogether? Around 1 in 6 (17.6%) agreed that it had, though responses varied considerably by the type of job people have: over 1 in 4 (27.14%) of those in Travel & Transport said that they’d consider leaving their job to avoid childcare costs, compared to around 1 in 5 for those working in Healthcare (20.7%).
The amount of paid parental leave that people reported receiving was also highly variable depending on the sector they work in – nearly half (47.1%) of those working in Travel & Transport reported that they get no paid leave, with 2 in 5 (39.6%) of those working in Retail, Catering & Leisure and over a third (35.4%) of those in IT & Telecoms in the same situation.
Could the answer be contributing some of your own salary in return for better parental perks like childcare subsidies or paid leave? Only 1 in 4 (26.8%) agreed that they would accept such a deal, though this rose to over a third (36.7%) for those who actually have a child under 18. A similar number (26.6%) said that they would consider taking a new job with a lower salary in return for better parental benefits, and when male respondents were asked if they would take a pay cut for better parental leave, a fifth (19.7%) agreed.
How much salary would you sacrifice for these perks – when those who agreed they’d contribute part of their salary in exchange for parental perks were asked specifically about childcare vouchers, the average response was that people would sacrifice 9.8% of their salary. Around the same number would be given up for paid parental leave – 10% on average. The proportion of salary that would be sacrificed for perks varied between salary bands in ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect: those in the lowest band (under $20,341) would contribute 9.4% of their salary for paid parental leave, while earners in the band above ($20,341-$33,901) would only contribute 8.2% – by comparison, those in the highest bracket (over $101,700) would contribute up to 11.8%.
But how much paid leave should new parents get? Respondents were asked how much leave should be given to mothers, fathers and adoptive parents – on average, mothers were considered to need the most time – 14.1 weeks (over 3 months). The average length of time given for fathers was 10.6 weeks (just under 2 and a half months), while adoptive parents were allotted 11 weeks (just over 2 and a half months).
In all three cases there was a clear gender divide among respondents – on average women thought parents of all kinds should have more paid leave than men (e.g. female respondents believed mothers were entitled to 15.5 weeks of holiday while male respondents thought they should get only 12.54). Those in older age groups also tended to feel that less time was needed than younger age groups (e.g. over 55s felt fathers should get just 7.5 weeks of paid leave compared to 13.62 weeks for the 25-24 group), perhaps a sign that attitudes have shifted.
American attitudes to paid parental leave aren’t shared across the world – when Easy Offices asked UK residents the same questions they felt mothers should get 21.7 weeks (54% more paid leave than US respondents) and fathers should get 13.8 weeks (30% more paid leave than US respondents).
Overall, as it stands only a minority are being put off having children entirely because of the costs and/or lack of support at work, but there’s clearly a gap between what most people feel is fair and what is on offer in terms of parental leave and childcare support in many jobs, and more than 1 in 4 (28.4%) Americans report that better paid parental leave would be an encouragement when considering whether to start a family.
*Survey was based on 2,003 general consumers in the USA (nationally representative) carried out by Censuswide between 09.11.2021 – 12.11.2021