Frequently Asked Questions

According to a study by Moms First and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), investing in child care solutions can boost employee productivity, job satisfaction, career progression, and retention. In their study, they saw that because of child care benefits:

• 85% of working parents are more likely to stay with their employer
• 78% of working parents report positive career impacts
• Working parents avoid up to 16 absences each year. 
• The organizations saw improvements to company culture, morale, and goodwill

A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study also found that child care solutions reduced missed work days by 30% and reduced lateness by 60%.

Each of the child care solutions includes insight into how implementing the support could have a positive impact on an organization’s employees and brand, and into the cost of the investment and the amount of time it will take to implement. These metrics are based on decades of collective experience in the child care sector, observations of emerging trends in employer-based child care, and deep, but anecdotal evidence from employers who have implemented similar solutions. The metrics provided are for informational purposes only and are based on available data at the time of analysis. They do not guarantee specific outcomes or results or predict future performance, and should not be construed in any way as personalized advice or a substitute for professional advice. While we strive for accuracy, it is important to note that employer-based child care is an emerging trend with limited comprehensive data on these impacts. These metrics are not derived from specific scientific studies or large-scale statistical analyses and actual results may vary depending on factors unique to each organization and its implementation. We are committed to regularly updating our metrics as more data becomes available and transparently communicating the basis of our assessments. We recommend that employers use these metrics as a guide and a starting point for discussion rather than guaranteed outcomes.

While on-site care is often associated with larger companies, it can be tailored for businesses of various sizes. Smaller companies can explore shared on-site or near-site facilities with other businesses or invest in scalable solutions that fit their budget and employee needs.

First, take this questionnaire to identify a solution for your organization based on the profiles of your company and employees. Then, you can download tools such as worksheets for articulating your strategy, engaging your leadership teams, or the employee needs assessment. If more tailored support is needed, reach out to EPIC to see if their services are a fit for your needs.

While on-site child care is often associated with larger companies, it can be tailored for businesses of various sizes. Smaller companies can explore shared on-site or near-site facilities with other businesses or invest in scalable solutions that fit their budget and employee needs. More important than the size of your organization are the needs of your employees. How many employees and parenting employees work for you? What are your operating hours (e.g. seasonal or 24/7)? Where do they live and work? Do they commute to work or work from home? How often? The 3-minute questionnaire can help you examine these factors and get personalized child care solutions that are right for your workforce.

To strategically invest in child care benefits, consider three barriers your employees may face: access, financial, and workplace barriers. Once you’ve identified the solution that’s right for your organization, be sure to understand your employees’ needs, confirm your organization’s goals and get organizational buy-in. There are tools here to  help you every step of the way. This will reduce barriers to implementation, and strengthen the long-term sustainability of your solution.

The number of team members depends on the solution you implement and your organization’s size, but typically includes a project lead, HR representatives, and legal counsel. Securing buy-in from the C-suite, finance, and operations teams is essential for aligning the initiative with broader business goals. You can find tools and resources to have these conversations here.

Costs will vary depending on the scope of the solution. However, many businesses start to see benefits within the first year, particularly in improved employee retention and productivity. This study by Moms First and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) outlines the benefits for employers who invest in child care solutions.

Success can be measured by tracking key metrics such as employee retention rates, absenteeism, productivity, and employee satisfaction. Regular feedback from employees and usage data from child care services will also help refine the program over time. This tool from Mom’s First helps guide employers through the process of tracking the ROI across the above metrics.

Conversations with and data from employers who offer child care benefits indicate that employees without young children typically enthusiastically support their employer’s child care benefits. Everyone benefits from these supports because when a parent’s work is impacted, it falls on their non-parenting colleagues to cover their duties. With up to 16 avoided absentee days, 88% of employers from a BCG and MomsFirst study report a boost in productivity when staff members have access to child care benefits. It is not only the parenting employees that reap the reward, non-parent coworkers can be more productive and have higher job satisfaction when their parent coworkers have stability.

Each child care solution comes with a set of considerations and challenges, however, intentionally assessing your employee’s needs will help to reduce some of those difficulties. Management of employee expectations will be critical, as well as strong communication and an iterative process to allow for ongoing adjustments based on employee feedback and evolving business needs.

Yes. EPIC (Executives Partnering to Invest in Children) helps employers to understand the child care needs of their workforce and to identify and implement solutions. EPIC has no affiliation with potential solutions and can act as a trusted and unbiased partner to develop a tailored child care solution for you and your employees. Contact us.

Yes, there are several tax credits and government funds available to employers who support their employees with child care. These can be found at both the federal and state levels. The Employer-Provided Child Care Credit (Internal Revenue Code Section 45F) is the primary federal child care tax credit, which allows employers to claim:

• 40% of qualified child care expenditures for regular businesses with a maximum of $500,000, and 50% for small businesses (under $31M gross revenue) with a maximum of $600,000
• 10% of qualified child care resource and referral expenditures

All credits will be adjusted for inflation. For more information and insight visit the US Code page on Section 45F Qualified expenditures include:

• Costs to build, renovate, or expand a child care facility
• Operating costs of a child care facility
• Contracting with a licensed child care program to provide child care services to employees
• Contracting with a third-party intermediary that contracts with child care facilities to provide child care services to employees
• Small businesses pooling their resources for shared benefits
• Qualified expenses made on or after January 1, 2026

The Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Tax Credit (Internal Revenue Code Section 45S) allows employers to claim:

• Up to 25% of wages paid to workers on qualifying leave (or the applicable percentage of premiums paid for an insurance policy) – could take out the parentheses.

Qualified employees:

• Are entitled to (a) at least two weeks of annual paid family and medical leave with (b) at least 50% of the wages normally paid to the employee
  • Qualifying part-time employees (working at least 20 hours per week) are entitled to a prorated amount
• Have been employees at the company for at least one year (or at least six months at the election of the employer)
• Do not have annualized compensation greater than 60% of the IRS’s Highly Compensated Employee (HCE) threshold

For more information on process and eligibility, visit the Section 45S Employer Credit for Paid Family and Medical Leave FAQs.   Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (DCFSA) can be offered by employers to allow workers to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for child care or dependent care. DCFSAs allow:

• Employees can contribute up to $7,500 starting January 1, 2026, which could mean tax savings of over $1,500 depending on the family’s tax bracket
• Eligibility for full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers
• Use only when employers offer and communicate the benefit

Eligible Dependent Care FSA Expenses are detailed on the FSA Feds website.   State tax credits or incentives for employers who provide child care support vary widely by state and can include:

• Tax credits for child care facilities
• Grants for starting or improving child care programs
• Subsidies for employee child care expenses

We recommend consulting a tax professional with these incentives and researching the specific offerings in your state, as they can significantly enhance the benefits available at the federal level. Additionally, you can check with your state's Department of Revenue or Economic Development office for state-specific programs and consider exploring partnerships with local child care resource and referral agencies for additional guidance.

To understand what the child care market looks like where you are, use this guide for understanding the licensed child care capacity and the child care needs in your locale.

There are a number of real world case studies here featuring businesses of all kinds - large, small, public, private - and across a variety of industries - healthcare, food, government agencies and more!

Understanding the needs of your employees is a critical piece to finding the solution that’s right for you. Depending on the size of your workforce, your operating hours (e.g. seasonal, 24/7, by appointment only) and whether, how often and how many of your employees work remotely or on-site at a central location will impact whether there’s enough “critical mass” to take advantage of the child care solution(s) that you choose to implement. The 3-minute questionnaire can help you examine these factors and get personalized child care solutions that are right for your workforce. For example:

• If your organization has a large number of employees (more than 500) working on site at predictable hours, then we recommend an on-site or near-site child care center.
• If your organization has a large  number of employees but most don’t come to the work site on a regular, predictable schedule, then we recommend a child care partnership to provide your employees with more flexibility in accessing a child care benefit that matches their work routine.
• We would also recommend a child care partnership if your workforce is smaller. In this case, even if your employees are on site 4 or 5 days a week, there may not be enough children to develop a new on-site or near-site child care center, but there is likely a large enough number of employees and their children to attend an existing child care program in the area.

The Vendor Directory contains child care partners, providers, and experts from across the country that can support employers to build out the child care solution that’s right for their business. Employers can find a vendor based on the type of child care solution they support and location(s) where they operate. The vendors listed in the directory are provided solely for informational purposes. EPIC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation do not endorse, recommend, or have any affiliation with any of the vendors featured. Users should conduct their own research and due diligence before engaging with any vendor or service. The inclusion of a vendor in this directory should not be construed as approval or guarantee of their services in any way. Vendors can request to be part of the directory based on their responses to a short form.

There are different types of vendors for the various child care solutions that you might choose to implement.

• Partnering with a child care provider involves establishing a relationship where the provider could manage an on- or near-site child care center, or secure child care slots for your employees at an existing program and help it to grow. It may also include financial solutions such as tailored rates and billing processes, or stipends and scholarships depending on how you build the solution with the provider.
• Partnering with other child care services offers an array of benefits for your employees beyond regular child care. For example, partnering with a child care concierge service means paying for a service that connects your employees with a broker who offers support such as help locating available child care programs or advice on the right care setting. Or a vendor may also provide a marketplace subscription, which allows employees to access a network of providers offering a wide range of types of care. A vendor may also support employees with financial support such as a subsidy navigator that helps employees access public funding for child care expenses, or even a voucher that parenting employees could redeem at partnering providers.
• If you choose to provide your employees with other add-on benefits or additional resources like working parent support groups, there are also vendors that can help you navigate those options and help your employees to access the support that works for them.

Collecting HR data as well as conducting an employee needs assessment is valuable before you connect with a vendor so that you have an understanding of what your employees need. At minimum, the HR data will offer a sense of potential needs if your organization is not ready to conduct a survey. The types of things that will be beneficial to know from HR are:

• Number of employees with young children (ideally by age range)
• Employee work locations (site-based, field locations, home locations, etc.)
• Employee child care pain points (access, affordability, quality, reliability, etc.)
• Interest in various care solutions