Backing our people as parents: introducing our childcare contribution

Backing our people as parents: introducing our childcare contribution Childcare has become an enormous cost for many young families, often arriving exactly when parents are trying to return to work after parental leave. Too often the sums simply don’t add up, and talented people step away from careers they love because childcare eats up much of what they earn. We want to help change that for our team. What we’re doing This year we introduced a new policy where permanent Raspberry Pi employees with a child between nine months and school age receive a salary uplift of £1,000 per calendar month, per child, as a contribution towards childcare costs (that’s the figure for full-time employees, and it’s pro-rated for part-time colleagues). With payments beginning once a child reaches the age of nine months — around the point when many parents are returning from leave — and continuing until the August before they start school, our aim is to ease the financial burden on young families. There are no strings attached to how the money is used. It’s a straightforward contribution, paid through our payroll, and designed to take some of the pressure off during the most expensive early years of parenthood. Why it matters We think this matters for a few reasons. First of all, supporting our colleagues through a demanding stage of life reflects the kind of company we want to be. It also helps with wellbeing and retention. Parents shouldn’t have to choose between a career and raising a family, and the return-to-work period is when many feel that tension most acutely. Easing the financial strain makes it far easier for people to come back, stay, and thrive. Lastly, it helps us build a stronger and more diverse team. The cost of childcare falls unevenly, and too often pushes women disproportionately out of the industry; by meeting some of that cost head on, we hope to keep brilliant people in technology careers. If this sounds like the sort of team you’d like to be a part of, take a look at our open positions at raspberrypi.com/jobs/. We’re proud to set this benchmark, and we hope others in our industry will follow. 9 comments Jump to the comment form Ricky C 1213 9 months leave and child care pay bump. Could you have a conversation with my employer. Jack A million times, THANK YOU! As a parent of four grown children, this sort of corporate behavior needs to be recognized and rewarded. rclark Back in my day, this was unheard of. Even men getting maturity leave? Just take PTO if you want a few days…. My wife was able to stay home with the kids for all their growing up years. Worked out for the best … here. Day care is simply having someone else raise your kids in their most formative years…. Seems we are going backwards here. Just my two cents, wait that’s 5 cents now. Roberto Back in the day you could buy a house on one parents salary making it a viable option for one parent to stay at home and look after the children. I would love to have done that, not sure my wife would have been pleased though :) Anders My wife did stay home for the first years until the children were at school. We covered the finance gap by setting up a small business which she ran flexibly. Raspberry Pi are being pragmatic, they will attract good people and retain them by showing the staff that they are valued contributors and not just a “human resource” commodity. I won’t hold my breath for other employers to voluntarily follow suit, even if RPi prove it works for them. Institutional employers are so dogmatic about their outdated ways. Paul S If only this kind of policy was around in my grand parents time, they would have loved it, they had 16 kids in a two bedroom miners cottage in the Durham coalfield. Alexander Feix Very inspiring . I spread the message to our HR Department and everyone i know Vanessa Rio Amazing!! So many fantastic people leave companies around new parenthood – so great to see this brilliant benefit! Fred Wow! This is amazing, I am so thrilled to see this news! As a parent and happy owner of many Raspberry Pis and also as a shareholder, kudos to whoever came up with this idea. This will surely boost the company reputation and at the same time have more happy employees around, feeling well supporting during some very challenging times of parenthood. This can only be a good thing! I hope other companies follow this!