Child care is hard to afford right now.
Legislation that would cap what we pay out of pocket has stalled.
“More providers left, more families couldn't afford care and that's what really spurred us to get into the employer space,” said Jessica Chang, CEO and co-founder of WeeCare.
“We wanted to stabilize childcare and say who can actually help make childcare more sustainable? Well employers, because employers were actually incentivized to also retain and recruit,” Chang said.
The pandemic has made it difficult to afford child care.
WeeCare used to be a marketplace parents could go to for childcare.
Now they are trying to help companies create benefits programs to help workers trying to balance jobs and parenting.
Chang says employers can benefit from putting more money towards their employees' childcare costs.
She says it can be cheaper for a company to help pay an employee's childcare costs, compared to losing them.
“If you lose that $50,000 employee, that's $10,000 you are going to be spending to hire.... Well, what if I told you ‘hey what if, instead, you offer that employee $200 a month, which is 25%, sometimes 25% of the cost of childcare,” said Chang.
WeeCare tries to help employees find care and customize a program that fits what a company is looking for.
“most of them are like manufacturing companies, health care, retail, hospitality, those industries are really getting hit but also, they probably employ the most number of people in any industry. Many of their employees are lower-wage employees too,” said Chang.
