"A $5,000 bonus for having a baby? Classes to understand when you’re most fertile? National recognition and a medal for having six kids? Those are some of the proposed solutions to the country’s declining birth rate from the current administration. The New York Times recently published an article detailing these ideas for increasing the U.S. birth rate, and while they indicated that the administration hasn’t decided on anything yet, the piece has sparked a strong reaction, with many believing that these are ineffective solutions to the problem.
A declining birth rate is nothing new for the United States. It’s been deteriorating ever since the “baby boom” after World War II, but last year the CDC announced that birth rates reached a new historic low.
In 1960, there were 23.4 live births for every 1,000 women, while it had dropped to only 11 births per 1,000 women in 2023, less than half of what it had been 65 years ago. Why does it matter? Declining birth rates can have a major impact on the economy. There’s more of a strain on programs like Social Security when there are fewer younger workers to support an aging population and less tax revenue with a smaller workforce.
‘Baby Boom’ Incentives Aren’t Solutions
Low birth rates are a problem the current Trump administration wants to solve. But proposals on the table for turning the declining birth rate around? They’re not solutions at all.
That’s because they won’t fix the broken system parents have to navigate today. These so-called solutions don’t address some of the underlying fundamental issues around why people aren’t having more kids, namely, the cost of childcare and lack of paid leave.
“Families don’t need empty platitudes,” says Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of Moms First, a national nonprofit fighting for America’s moms. “They’ve gotten enough of that over the years,” she stresses. “What parents need is paid leave, affordable child care, and real policy solutions that make it possible to afford raising a child in America.”
“What parents need is paid leave, affordable child care, and real policy solutions that make it possible to afford raising a child in America.”
Read on for how more affordable childcare and expanded paid leave programs are two potential solutions that actually might help address the birth rate problem.
Make Childcare More Affordable
Something is better than nothing, but a $,5000 ‘baby bonus’ is a drop in the bucket for what it costs to raise a kid or to simply make it out of the hospital after they’re born. Even with private health insurance, the average parent will pay roughly just under $3,000 in hospital bills when baby arrives, already 60 percent of the proposed bonus.
The Center for American Progress estimates that the average cost for infant daycare is $1,300 a month, or about 1.5 months of care after the average labor and delivery bill is paid and before that baby bonus would run dry, or just shy of four months of care if the entire bonus was put toward childcare.
That same family would be paying nearly $16,000 a year on childcare on top of costs like diapers, formula, clothes, and a safe sleeping set-up. The potential $5,000 bonus could leave parents slightly better off to start with, but does nothing to address the fact that parents are spending roughly 24 percent of their household income on childcare, when The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that “affordable” childcare is when it doesn’t exceed 7 percent of household income. Parents can’t afford childcare, which makes having kids—or having more kids—a tough proposition.
“It ain’t rocket science, folks” Saujani recently posted on the @MomsFirstUS Instagram page. “We’re the wealthiest nation that puts the least amount of money into childcare [and] now in every single state parents are paying more for their childcare than for their mortgage,” she added in a later post.
Access to quality, affordable childcare “empowers parent[s] to work while ensuring children have a safe, nurturing environment,” Chamber of Mothers, another nonprofit advocating for maternal rights, posted to Instagram in response to the proposed solutions from the Trump administration.
Their suggestions for how to make childcare more accessible for families include things like offering tax incentives for businesses offering childcare, community grants, and a more expansive childcare tax credit.
The U.S. Has Offered Affordable Childcare Before
Saujani was quick to point out on Instagram that the U.S. has offered universal childcare before. During World War II, the Lanham Act made it possible for parents to send their children to full-time daycare for what would be the equivalent of about $10 today. As a result, more women were able to work and the economy grew.
Instituting a similar solution today, where parents knew they could afford childcare, could mean that they’re more likely to have multiple kids instead of stopping at one or not having any at all because of the costs.
Expand Paid Leave Programs
The United States is the only developed country with no paid leave program for parents. One in four women go back to work two weeks after having a baby because they simply cannot afford not to go back to work.
“Most families cannot afford to stay home from work during [the first few months],” says Chamber of Mothers CEO Erin Erenberg. “Seventy-four percent of mothers would have to use up their cash savings if they took eight weeks of unpaid maternity leave, and more than half of Americans say they don’t have enough money in savings to survive three months without income.”
Other women don’t go back at all because the cost of childcare is more than what their take home pay would be, which means they’d lose money by continuing to work.
“More than half of Americans say they don’t have enough money in savings to survive three months without income.”
Multiple studies have illustrated the positive economic impact that paid leave programs have on the economy. People are more likely to return to work after giving birth if they have access to paid leave, which means businesses are less likely to have to spend money replacing lost talent, an expensive endeavor. It also means that there’s a higher labor force participation, which translates into economic growth.
“If women in the U.S. participated in the labor force at the same rate as women in countries with stronger work-family policies, our GDP could grow by $775 billion annually,” stresses Erenberg.
Elisabeth Jacobs, Associate Vice President at the Urban Institute, testified before congress in 2020 about the benefits paid leave has on businesses and the economy. “Early research from the states with paid leave programs suggests that paid leave can reduce worker turnover, which, in turn, means lower costs and higher productivity for businesses,” she said.
And yet only 27 percent of workers in the U.S. have access to any form of paid leave. If offering paid leave has a positive effect on businesses and the economy and a positive effect on parents, it stands to reason that expanding paid leave programs might be able to help boost birth rates.
On top of that, what if a parent knows they’ll be able to survive not working for a few months because they have access to paid leave and knows they’ll be able to afford childcare when they go back to work? Seems like two solutions that could move the needle more on birth rates than say, classes to determine when you’re most fertile.
What You Can Do Today
“If the administration really wants to boost birth rates, it has to start by listening to moms,” Saujani says. “Because ‘Medals of Motherhood,’ transportation funding in towns with high birth rates, and programs to teach women about their ‘natural fertility’ just won’t cut it.”
“If the administration really wants to boost birth rates, it has to start by listening to moms.”
Change takes time. Affordable childcare and paid leave are not new or novel ideas, they’re ones that have been advocated for for years now.
If you want to make sure you’re taking advantage of all of the potential paid leave you might qualify for, paidleave.ai is a tool that can give you an idea of what you’re eligible for. Moms First also has an easy way to send a letter to your Congressional leaders telling them to make childcare an economic priority and you can also join a local Chamber of Mothers chapter for more advocacy opportunities.
It can be frustrating to talk about the same ideas over and over again, but more people talking about what the real solutions are can make a difference.
As for that medal? We all deserve one.
Elliott Harrell, Contributing Writer
Elliott is a mom of two little girls and is based in Raleigh, NC. She spends her days running a sales team and doing laundry and her nights writing about the things that she loves. She’s passionate about all things motherhood and women’s health. When she’s not working, writing or parenting you can find her trying a new restaurant in town or working on her latest needlepoint project.