In Seattle’s competitive workforce, benefits can make or break employment decisions. The “big three” in Seattle — Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing — offer long lists of family-related benefits, which may include support for health-plan dependent IVF treatments, adoption financial assistance or leave, and, increasingly, paid parental leave.
Conspicuously absent from that list? Subsidized child care.
“Child care is one of the biggest gaps in employee benefits because it’s treated as a personal issue, not an economic imperative,” said Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Moms First, a national organization dedicated to improving the cost of child care. “Nearly half of today’s workforce are caregivers. Without child care, they can’t work — period.”
According to research from University of Kansas, 2025 saw the steepest decline of women in the workforce in 40 years, with 400,000 women stepping out in the first part of the year alone. Researchers note that child care problems were a major reason moms reported for their departure.
Making an effort
In Seattle, public institutions and nonprofits are more likely than comparably-sized private companies to offer direct child care support. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, subsidizes child care for eligible employees with a family income cap of about $149,000. Separately, the City of Seattle offers income-based assistance to eligible employees who live in the city, but it’s a municipal subsidy, not an employee benefit.
The University of Washington provides priority access and tuition support at multiple on-site child care centers to income-eligible faculty, staff, and students. The university “helps keep tuition below market median by covering the space, facilities, and maintenance costs for its on-site centers,” said Victor Balta, UW’s assistant vice president for communications. But while the UW Children’s Center at Laurel Village is expected to double capacity by 2028, Balta acknowledges that waitlists are long at all centers.
At YMCA of Greater Seattle, a champion in the arena of child care benefits, full-time staff receive a 50% subsidy at Y Early Education Centers (infant though preschool), before and after-school programs, and summer day camps. All employees also receive a free Y membership, which entitles them to two hours of free onsite care at YMCA Kids Zones — every day.
Loria Yeadon, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Seattle, explained those decisions: “Child care benefits for Y staff are meaningful — and can also be combined with financial assistance — because employees are also parents, neighbors, and members of the very communities the Y exists to serve. At the Y, we consider child care not a perk, but a foundation for equity and opportunity for all.’
Private sector offerslittle assistance
In stark contrast to the YMCA, benefits lag at Seattle’s large private sector employers. Many companies that list “child care benefits” offer Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (DCFSA), allowing employees to set aside a maximum of $7,500 per year per household of their own pre-tax income to cover child care. According to the DCFSA website, depending on their tax bracket, employees can save up to $900 per year — less than half of one month of infant care.
In 2018, Starbucks enthusiastically announced a new benefit: ten days of subsidized “backup care” for parents who need it. Other companies, like Amazon and Boeing, quickly followed suit. However, using Seattle’s average infant care cost of $1,000 per week, if an employee with a sick infant were to use all 10 days of subsidized backup care, this benefit saves a mere 5% on total annual child care expenses for that infant.
Microsoft does offer some help for the day-to-day. A “Family Concierge” service helps employees coordinate child care, and full-time employees can register for infant (20%) and toddler (10%) subsidies at several large daycares like Bright Horizons, a provider of employer-sponsored child care. Priya Krishnan, Bright Horizons’ chief digital and transformation officer, wishes companies offered more.
“We see employers as an important source of financial support for working parents when it comes to child care. Organizations have the opportunity — and responsibility — to ease the burden for working parents,” Krishnan said.
Mom’s career takes the hit
Despite recent studies showing a return on investment for employers who subsidize child care, just 12% of U.S. workers receive child care benefits.
Mothers, above all, are paying the price for this. A 2021 report by the Congressional Budget Office found that moms “are more likely to be the primary caretakers of children; having access to low-cost or free child care would allow them to work more.”
Read more of our coverage of what it will take to advance universal child care in Seattle:
- Universal Child Care: What can Seattle learn from New Mexico? | New Mexico’s new universal, no-fee child care system has insights
- The cost of child care: One block, five families, $200,000+ a year | Child care for two kids can cost as much as four years of college tuition
- Immigrant providers are critical to achieving universal child care | Equity in child care access depends on it
- What’s the DEEL? Seattle’s work toward universal child care | DEEL Director Dwane Chappelle discusses where we are and what it will take
- Child care by the numbers—and where to turn for help | Seattle is a ways away from universal child care, but assistss thousands with care
- In Seattle, few employers significantly subsidize child care | Outlier YMCA considers child care ‘not a perk, but a foundation for equity and opportunity
- ‘We need long-term funding not short-term fixes’ | City and state leaders say they’ll keep working to address the state’s child care crisis
