Shopping for parental benefits around the world

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It is so expensive to have a kid in the United States. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countries worldwide with no federal paid parental leave; it offers functionally no public childcare (and private childcare is wildly expensive); and women can expect their pay to take a hit after becoming a parent. (Incidentally, men's wages tend to rise after becoming fathers.)

But outside the U.S., many countries desperately want kids to be born inside their borders. One reason? Many countries are facing a looming problem in their population demographics: they have a ton of aging workers, fewer working-age people paying taxes, and not enough new babies being born to become future workers and taxpayers. And some countries are throwing money at the problem, offering parents generous benefits, even including straight-up cash for kids.

So if the U.S. makes it very hard to have kids, but other countries are willing to pay you for having them....maybe you can see the opportunity here. Very economic, and very pregnant, host Mary Childs did. Which is why she went benefits shopping around the world. Between Sweden, Singapore, South Korea, Estonia, and Canada, who will offer her the best deal for her pregnancy?

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
0:08.5	With SAP Concur solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next.
0:14.0	Learn more at concur.com.
0:18.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:20.0	I have to start this episode off with some personal news. I am pregnant. Thank you.
0:30.0	I also have a toddler so I have already been through the having a kid rigmarole here in the US
0:35.9	which is how I know it is not a good deal having a kid in the US is extremely expensive.
0:43.5	Our government is one of just like a handful of countries worldwide
0:47.2	that does not offer any form of paid parental leave.
0:50.5	We have functionally no public daycare, so knowing what I know, it would be irrational
0:56.6	of me to have more kids here if I can avoid it, especially when it is my understanding
1:02.0	that other countries are offering way better deals, tons of benefits
1:06.8	and straight up cash for having babies.
1:09.7	And one of the reasons why there are such good deals out there is because governments around the
1:14.6	world are struggling with labor force participation, having enough workers and
1:19.4	getting the most possible out of them. And maybe the biggest driver, a lot of countries are facing a problem
1:26.8	in their population demographics. They have a ton of aging workers and not enough new babies being born to become future workers and
1:35.7	taxpayers. So I have something they need babies they have something I need, money, social services, and functioning public infrastructure.
1:47.0	Let's make a deal!
1:49.0	Hello and welcome to Planet Money, I'm Mary Childs, and on the show we are going to go around the world
1:54.7	shopping for the very best deal so you don't have to. And along the way we will find out
2:00.4	why those deals exist in the first place. The history behind these
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -317 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.