These CEO sisters went viral for providing free child care. They're starting a movement

It's been nearly a year since sisters and cofounders Taylor Capuano and Casey Sarai went viral for providing free child care to their employees. The video of the twins announcing their child care program, which provides up to $3,000 monthly stipends, accumulated 2.4 million views on TikTok and thousands of comments from parents who felt seen.

"As a mom I’m tearing up. This is amazing," one user commented.

"Such an amazing gift to your employees," another commented. "My wife now stays at home while I work 2 jobs because it made no sense to spend most of her salary on daycare!"

"It's not realistic right now for every company to match what we're doing," Sarai told USA TODAY. She launched her bra alternative company, Cakes Body, with her sister in 2022. But Capuano and Sarai are using what they've learned over the past year to inspire other companies to adopt similar policies, or at least start talking about child care solutions .

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"We ended up publishing our policy, because when we went to roll this out, there was no blueprint," Sarai said.

At a time when the cost of child care for two children is  more expensive than rent  in all 50 states, parents are feeling more financially strapped than ever. Some parents − overwhelmingly mothers − are stepping back from full-time work or leaving the workforce altogether to accommodate the needs of their family. Child care disruptions cost U.S. businesses up to $70 billion every year in lost productivity, turnover and absenteeism, according to a recent report from Moms First , a nonprofit advocacy group for paid leave and child care.

It's not enough for child care advocates, lawmakers and businesses to work at solving this crisis in silos, Sarai said. That's why she and her sister are partnering with child care advocates like Moms First to promote policy change that would allow other companies to more easily follow in their footsteps.

"Our goal right now is to get as many businesses and individuals to pledge to the Cakes Childcare Movement . That is basically opting in that you care about this cause," Sarai said. "So that we can show people care, but then figure out how can we all join forces together to create a roadmap for change."

When parents feel valued, they come to work 'primed for peak performance'

The Cakes child care program offers employees a fully subsidized child care stipend of up to $3,000 per month for workers with children below the public school age.

Both Capuano and Sarai worked in corporate jobs before launching their own company and saw firsthand how difficult that world could be for mothers .

"We believe that child care costs should not cost women their careers," Sarai said. "And we didn't want our employees, especially, to have to make that choice."

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Cakes is a smaller company with about 30 employees, and Sarai said all eligible employees have opted into their child care credit program. They've had no attrition in the past year, and have attracted talent from Fortune 500 companies because of the policy. Other startups have come to Sarai and Capuano asking for advice on how to implement similar programs.

After seeing the success of their program internally, Sarai said she and her sister wanted to get more businesses together to draw attention to the child care crisis on Capitol Hill. They held a summit with business leaders and child care advocates in mid-April to get the ball rolling, specifically focused on expanding the federal employer-provided childcare credit .

"There are a lot of advocacy groups focused on either individuals or moms, and there aren't − historically, there haven't been businesses at the table going to advocate for change," Sarai said. "It's so important that businesses get involved because, at the end of they day, if someone doesn't have reliable child care or can't afford child care or something like that, it does impact the business and it is the employer that suffers."

When parents feel good about their child care setup, she said, they come to work "primed for peak performance." It's not just about providing free child care, she said. It's about companies showing they care about families and not equating flexibility with being unproductive.

There's a stigma, Sarai said, that moms who leave to pick their kids up from school are "slacking off." But "just because you sit in a seat for eight hours a day, doesn't equal productivity," she said.

"If we can start to shift that narrative, that will make a huge difference for working moms," she said. "I mean before 9 a.m., before they even sit down at their desk, they've already lived a day."

Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with  Pivotal  and  Journalism Funding Partners . Funders do not provide editorial input.

Reach Madeline at  memitchell@usatoday.com  and  @maddiemitch_  on X.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cakes cofounders are starting a child care movement