Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc. and Space X, posted on his Twitter Friday that he plans to "significantly" increase childcare benefits at his companies.
He hopes that the move will encourage other companies to do the same. Musk added that the Musk Foundation, which makes private grants, plans to donate directly to the families. The details of which will be announced next month.
He wrote that "kids are worth it if all possible."
Kids are worth it if at all possible. I’m planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022
Hopefully, other companies do same.
Also, Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to families.
Hopefully, details to be announced next month.
According to Page Six, shortly after the news broke that he secretly fathered an eight-month-old twin, Musk posted, "I hope you have big families and congrats to those who already do!"
The billionaire has been very vocal about his concerns over population collapse.
The childcare announcement came in response to a Twitter user who asked the billionaire what he would say to someone that thinks that "they shouldn't have a lot of kids for cost reasons?"
Father of eight-month-old twins
Musk recently confirmed that he is the father of eight-month-old twins born to a senior executive at his artificial intelligence startup, Nueralink. Musk and Shivon Dilis, the director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, petitioned a Travis County judge to change the names of their two children. The petition revealed the existence of two of Musk's nine children. Musk and Zilis filed a petition to change the twin's name to have their father's last name and contain their mother's last name as part of their middle name, Reuters report.
The billionaire has six children with his ex-wife Wilson: 18-year-old twins Griffin and Vivian, 16-year-old triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, and a son named Nevada, who died just ten weeks after his birth from sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. He also shared two children, X AE A-XII, 2, and 7-month-old Exa, with the singer Grimes, then his recent admission about the twins with Zillis.
As for parenting style, Musks earlier admitted that he lets the children's mothers take on more significant roles when the kids are young, and he gets involved as the children age.
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Tesla Childcare Benefits
As per Fortune, Tesla offers all U.S. full-time employees benefits and leave options. Benefits include as much as $25,000 in reproduction services, including donor and surrogacy, 16 weeks of paid family leave, and pay for nine weeks of maternity leave. Tesla also offers backup child care for employees for five days.
The company's latest impact report wants its benefits to be an "outlier in the manufacturing industry."
The lack of affordable healthcare is one reason why many women got out of the workforce during the pandemic, especially when companies forced their employees to return to the office.
Last year, a survey from Care.com revealed that more than half of parents of children younger than 15 are spending 20 percent or more of their income on child care.
Also, around 44 percent of low-income individuals, women, and people of color are not covered by the Family Medical Leave Act. Fortune reports that when not protected by the law, their jobs are not assured for them even if they want to take time off unpaid when they have new babies or are sick.
