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Information on Employer Supported Child Care
~Employer supported child care is any arrangement
which employers establish that assists employees
with their work and family responsibilities~
Nationwide, employers are studying the cost of offering various work/family programs and some businesses are responding to the conflict between work demands and family responsibility. You may want to check if your employer offers family friendly initiatives to help you balance work and family commitments. The following information looks at some of the more common work family programs.
Includes flexible hours, compressed work week (employees work longer hours per day but less days per week) telecommuting, job sharing, part-time schedules and voluntary reduced work time.
Vouchers or subsidies that reduce costs for child care, Dependent Care Assistance plan (salary set aside plans that let employees set up a pre-tax account from which they pay their childcare) Flexible benefit plans (Cafeteria plans, allow employees to choose from a menu of taxable and non taxable benefits which suit their individual needs, such as medical or life insurance, or child care)
Includes referrals to child care services and/or to your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency (Marin Child Care Council), newsletters, bulletin boards and individual case management. Time off to help find child care, parent education (seminars & workshops on a variety of childhood and parenting issues).
On-site or nearby child care facilities, reserved slots at local centers of family child care homes, back up or emergency care supported by your employer.
Despite a growing awareness of the tension of the demands of work and family, every business must decide individually how to respond and what changes to make. Your ability to successfully combine work and family will largely depend on your company's attitude and policies. But the benefits for your company include the following; these are also great talking points to address with your manager:
Reduced Tardiness and Absenteeism. Rise in Productivity and Job Performance. Lower Turnover. Recruitment and Retention Tool.
So what can you do? The following are some steps you can take to address the need for employer supported child care options in your workplace.
Familiarize yourself with all the family leave initiatives at your job. Determine how these policies best suit your needs. Contact us for information on successful work family initiatives.
Let your employer know that Marin Child Care Council offers free referrals that fit the unique needs of each family. Counselors will help match a families needs with child care providers in their area at no cost. We will search our database of over 300 caregivers for those that meet the selected criteria.
555 Northgate Drive, Suite 105 San Rafael, CA 94903.
415.479.2273
www.mc3.org
410 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
415.772.4315
www.onesmallstep.org
A coalition of employer's and others interested in employer supported child care.
149 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
415.552.1000
www.new-way.co
New Ways to Work campaigns and provides expertise on new and flexible ways of working that help people, organizations and society achieve a balance between work and the rest of life.
221 Pine Street, San Francisco, CA 94101
415.394.7114
www.childcarelaw.org
Provides useful publications.
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