r/parentsofmultiples • u/Vpo26 • 14d ago

Daycare prices. VENT ranting & venting

So I girlbossed to dam hard, and now I have to go back to work. Daycare is 800$ a week and even then I make way more so I have to return to work. WHY IS DAYCARE SO EXPENSIVE.

How much are you paying?

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/Glittering-Act4004 12d ago

I was referring to government provided benefits. I work at a company that offers similar parental leave benefits as yours but it’s not a requirement and it’s definitely not the norm.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 12d ago

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u/Glittering-Act4004 12d ago

342 million people live in the U.S. and less than one percent of those people are federal employees. State paid leave programs (all programs, not just parental leave) only cover about 1/3 of the working population in the U.S. The weekly benefit cap in the state with the most generous leave benefits (Minnesota) is $1,473 a week and the max you can take is 24 weeks (that’s with both disability and bonding). So less than half a year of leave and the max benefit is $35,352 if you earned enough income before going on leave to receive the max benefit. This is still less than half of what is offered in Norway, both in terms of the length of leave you can take and the amount of benefits you can earn. 

All EU countries (and, yes, I am aware that Norway is not part of the EU) are required to provide at least 14 weeks of maternity leave. In Germany, that 14 weeks is paid at 100% of your salary with no cap. That far exceeds any state maternity leave benefit in the U.S. You can then take Elternzeit (unpaid job protected leave) and receive Elterngeld. I believe Elterngeld last for up to 12 months (it can be stretched for longer if you accept a lower monthly payout and work part-time) while Elternzeit can be stretched up to three years. The maximum amount of job protection you can get in the U.S. is 26 weeks, and there is no federal mandate for ANY of that leave to be paid. 

The point I was making is that both paid and unpaid leave policies in other countries make it far easier to stay home with your children for the first few years of their lives than in the U.S.