Moms Need Support Returning to Work. Here’s How the Government Can Help

Sheila was a high-powered accountant prior to the birth of her first son in 2002. Now the mother of four school-aged children, she is excited to shed her stay-at-home mom status and re-enter her career. Unfortunately, Sheila, like many women who choose to leave the workforce and raise a family, experiences many barriers to return. She is stuck.

Approximately 43 percent of highly qualified women take a break in their careers to raise a family and 90 percent of those women intend for it to be a temporary leave. Re-entering the workforce after an extended absence is often a difficult path due to resume gaps, corporate biases, lack of updated training, and other obstacles. The longer a person is out, the more difficult it is to get back in. Studies have found that even the most accomplished women need guidance, encouragement, and tools to reacclimate to the rapidly changing business world.

Nearly 1.6 million mothers with children under the age of 17 left their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic to take care of children and had not returned a year later. It would help those mothers, and also benefit employers, to have a path back into the workforce. To build that path, the government could subsidize several initiatives that help mothers obtain necessary educational and vocational training, as well as provide grants and other types of funding, to support their return to work and assist them to achieve leadership careers.

One initiative that would go a long way to help mothers in the workforce would be employer tax discounts for rehiring mothers. For every disbursed dollar in payroll, an employer must also pay tax on that amount, which varies by state. Reducing this tax by 50 percent across the board for companies that hire mothers would be an attractive incentive.

Second, the government can reform existing programs to make child care more accessible. The cost of child care is a substantial factor in women remaining out of the workforce after childbirth. The most expensive states have the highest rate of stay-at-home mothers. Annual estimates for child care costs vary greatly across the U.S. from $5,000 in Mississippi to more than $24,000 in Washington D.C. True, the federal government has created dependent-care flexible spending accounts (FSAs), but not all companies offer them. Further, FSAs allow a maximum pre-tax contribution of $2,500 per year for a single or married-filing-single designation on a Federal Tax Return or $5,000 per year for an individual who files jointly or head-of-household.

These amounts are not adequate, based on the costs parents face. Determining the average cost of child care by county within each state would be a more accurate way to effectively monetize the benefit. For example, in Connecticut, the cost of child care in the rural town of Norwich is markedly different than in metropolitan Stamford, where the same child care service might cost triple the amount. The government should also allow 100 percent of the specific child care expense to be paid with an employee’s pre-tax dollars as long as proper proof of payment was provided when filing an annual tax return.

Since the government does not monitor the FSA benefit at the corporate level, many American employees are not aware of its existence and their entitlement to it. The government can require that all employers offer the program, and provide education about it to full-time and part-time employees alike.

A third solution would be to create grants for career-building programs and professional coaching.

Approximately 9 percent of mothers who hold a master’s degree, and approximately 6 percent who have a PhD, stay at home. Hence, the barrier for a mother seeking to re-enter the workforce is often not lack of qualifications, but employer perception about their resume gap. In corporate America, caring for a child is viewed as unemployment rather than as a strong entry point. What most employers fail to realize is that being a mother is a superpower. As CEO of their households, moms have learned valuable time management, organization, and people skills, while exhibiting patience in the most demanding situations.

In a household that has lacked an income for a year or more, limited funds often prevent mothers from investing in career-building programs that can help them obtain gainful employment. Creating grants that enable mothers to hire a professional coach and access corporate recruiters will not only instill confidence and educate them about available positions, but also will provide a strong voice that advocates for their strengths and skills, as well as for accommodations to support them as mothers, such as flexible scheduling or remote work.

Career-building programs help moms adapt to a changing workplace. During the pandemic, the entire office dynamic changed as companies were forced to adapt to hybrid or completely remote work schedules. If a child was born in 2019 and is now entering kindergarten in 2024, their mother will have to acclimate to the new world of Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams. Experience with these and other software programs is essential for many jobs currently available.

Creation of educational grants that train mothers on these technical systems will open the door to more career opportunities and increase their chances for successful, long-term career placement. The grant could encompass two years of qualified education at an accredited college that allows mothers to pursue certifications, access to and training in a trade, and completion of a degree program.

Employers should not view taking a pause in a career to raise a family as a liability, but as an asset. Working mothers approach each task with newfound passion, purpose, and persistence to succeed. More governmental protections, as well as monitoring and reporting, will protect this under-served class as it ascends to its rightful place in corporate boardrooms and executive suites across America.

If women decide to stop having children, there is no future. It is time that America starts rewarding women for this sacrifice rather than punishing them.

Brooke Goff, Esq. is founder and CEO of Goff Law Group, a woman-owned and operated personal injury law firm.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.