Questionable research claims abound: Daycare is expensive, rivaling mortgage payments (which are also high due to high housing costs and high interest rates). If you start advertising free childcare your firm will be inundated with parents of childbearing age, many with large families. Initial projections about the cost will be wrong when daycare expenses skyrocket.
Over the years I’ve read about how subsidized health insurance pays for itself in higher productivity. How paid sick leave pays for itself in higher productivity. How paid family leave pays for itself in a better recruiting, how paid maternity leave helps with recruiting and retention. Economic theory suggests this is all wrong. To the extent you offer benefits workers are unwilling to pay for in reduced take home pay you are probably not compensating them efficiently and driving up payroll costs.
The article on Blue Cross dropping its coverage of a specialty child hospital……….
I take no joy in the anguish that this family faces all the time, with a terribly sick child……
but my observation is that by world standards, Americans are incredibly spoiled.
This family must drive several hours and miss a day of work, in order that their child receive the best care for his illness in the entire world.
Compare this to families who are fleeing gang violence in Mexico and Central America. These families must sleep outdoors and wade across rivers and get no medical care, and do so for months at a time.
Questionable research claims abound: Daycare is expensive, rivaling mortgage payments (which are also high due to high housing costs and high interest rates). If you start advertising free childcare your firm will be inundated with parents of childbearing age, many with large families. Initial projections about the cost will be wrong when daycare expenses skyrocket.
Over the years I’ve read about how subsidized health insurance pays for itself in higher productivity. How paid sick leave pays for itself in higher productivity. How paid family leave pays for itself in a better recruiting, how paid maternity leave helps with recruiting and retention. Economic theory suggests this is all wrong. To the extent you offer benefits workers are unwilling to pay for in reduced take home pay you are probably not compensating them efficiently and driving up payroll costs.
The article on Blue Cross dropping its coverage of a specialty child hospital……….
I take no joy in the anguish that this family faces all the time, with a terribly sick child……
but my observation is that by world standards, Americans are incredibly spoiled.
This family must drive several hours and miss a day of work, in order that their child receive the best care for his illness in the entire world.
Compare this to families who are fleeing gang violence in Mexico and Central America. These families must sleep outdoors and wade across rivers and get no medical care, and do so for months at a time.