Employer-Provided Childcare in Liberal Welfare States

• In Event: Childcare and the Politics of Parenthood in Advanced Economies

Abstract

Why do so few employers in liberal welfare regimes offer childcare benefits to their employees? What explains why some employers do offer these benefits while others do not? What are the consequences of this variation, particularly for women, given a labor context of wage and advancement gaps between women and men? In this research project, I explore the supply and demand for employer-provided childcare in its political and policy context in the United States and Canada. Liberal welfare regimes lack coherent, national childcare policies, but employ tax incentives to stimulate private sector employers to offer childcare benefits. These have met with limited success; meanwhile, the state as an employer itself is an important source of employer-provided childcare. I posit that the low level of employer-provided childcare is not due to a lack of demand by employees, especially women, but a lack of supply from employers. Using a field experiment, I test the hypothesis that women's professional advancement could be increased by employers offering on-site childcare, particularly extended-hours care, to help women with young children work longer hours. I then explore the determinants of the supply of employer-provided childcare using an original dataset of high-revenue companies in the United States and Canada, as well as federal agencies that provide childcare to government workers.

Author

• Audrey Latura, Harvard University