Cleo, The Mom Project, PL+US and Happiest Baby Rally Top Companies to Invest In Working Parents

***Leading Businesses Step-Up as 20% of Parents Are Considering Leaving the Workforce including: Salesforce, PepsiCo, Uber, Box, Pinterest, Zoom, Okta, Initialized Capital, Snap Inc., GV, NEA, Greylock, Pure Storage, UrbanSittter, Winnie, Cloudflare, Niantic, The Wing, Cora, The Detox Market***

SAN FRANCISCO, May 18, 2020 — Cleo, The Mom Project, PL+US (Paid Leave for the United States), Happiest Baby (led by world-renowned pediatrician and bestselling author Dr. Harvey Karp), public officials, and top American companies have formed an emergency coalition, publishing a report on the impact of COVID-19 on employment among working families, particularly working mothers.

The report is published alongside a set of resources and a business-focused Invest in Parents Pledge for companies to sign and take action to protect and invest in working parents during the next phase of our far-reaching health and economic crisis. We will bring awareness to employers across the United States about the unique needs of working parents through partnerships with NGOs, private industry, and family-tech focused services.

“Everyone has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, especially working parents,” said Sarahjane Sacchetti, Cleo CEO. “As a mother of two, I can personally relate to the increased strain and anxiety placed on working parents during these unprecedented times. That’s why it’s important Cleo, The Mom Project, PL+US, Happiest Baby, and others have partnered together to not only provide this valuable data, but also to encourage more companies to get onboard with the mission.”

According to the report, 1 in 5 working parents said either they or their partner are considering leaving the workforce to care for their children. More than 50% of working parents are also without childcare.

Work-life balance no longer exists as we all do our best to remain at home and follow various mandates by government and health officials amid the coronavirus pandemic. Anxiety around job security is increasing as parents juggle their careers while also taking care of their children, as well as serving as educators with schools closed, including some states for the rest of the school year.

Full-time working mothers in two-parent households are doing on average around 22 hours of childcare a week during COVID-19 in addition to maintaining their jobs. Married men provide 7.2 hours of childcare per week versus 10.3 hours for married women, among those employed full-time.

“Working parents, especially moms, need our help and support now more than ever,” said Allison Robinson, CEO of The Mom Project. “We’re joining together with Cleo, PL+US, Happiest Baby, and our founding pledge signatories — Salesforce, PepsiCo, Uber, Box, Pinterest, Zoom, Okta, Alexis Ohanian & Initialized Capital, GV, NEA, Greylock, Pure Storage, UrbanSittter, Winnie, Cloudflare, Niantic, The Wing, Cora, The Detox Market — to encourage other businesses to sign the pledge to demonstrate their support as well.”

A series of virtual roundtables will be launched as well as a task force on the state of working parents in an effort to help highlight different challenges as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds. A set of policy and workforce recommendations will be released at the end of May and June, to help foster actionable solutions with policy and business leaders focused on working parent support.

“The state of working motherhood is at stake,” urges Dr. Harvey Karp, pediatrician and founder of Happiest Baby. “Let’s rise to the challenge, together. We’re honored to join the coalition and stand up for the parents that need us now.”

For more information, or to sign the pledge to stand up for working parents, please visit www.investinparents.com. @InvestInParents

About Cleo
Cleo is a safety net for working families that plugs the gaps between the demands of work and life. With its own network of expert guides, they apply a mix of telehealth visits, always-on parent support, and community connections for thousands of families every day for every moment that matters. From birth prep and lactation support to mental health triage and early childhood behavioral support and management training, Cleo prepares families for every part of the journey of growing their families as they grow their careers. Cleo serves more than 100 clients and supports families globally in 55+ countries and in 10+ languages.

About The Mom Project

The Mom Project is the leader in helping businesses attract and retain female talent. With a community of over 250,000 talented professionals and more than 2,000 companies, The Mom Project is committed to building a better workplace for mothers and the businesses they support by harnessing the often overlooked intellectual workplace power of moms. The Chicago-based company was founded in 2016 by Allison Robinson, who serves as CEO, and has raised $11M in funding to date, including a Series A of $8M led by Grotech Ventures, Initialized Capital and Aspect Ventures, along with previous backers Atlanta Seed Company, Engage Ventures, OCA Ventures, BBG Ventures, IrishAngels and Wintrust Financial. Serena Williams joined The Mom Project as a Strategic Advisor in early 2020 to further mobilize the mission.

About PL+US

PL+US (Paid Leave for the United States) is the national campaign to win paid family leave by 2022. Founded by Katie Bethell, who Fortune Magazine named one of the world’s greatest leaders, the organization has helped win paid family leave for nearly 8 million people at companies like Walmart, Starbucks, CVS and more in partnership with employees, employers, consumers, and investors. Learn more at: http://paidleave.us/.

About Happiest Baby

Happiest Baby is dedicated to helping parents raise healthy, happy children. The company weaves cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom to create products and content to educate parents and enhance child well-being. Happiest Baby’s SNOO Smart Sleeper provides the sensations of the womb — and the responsive rhythms of experienced caregivers — to add 1-2 hours of sleep, reduce crying, and immediately improve infant safety by preventing risky rolling.

SNOO has helped babies sleep safely for over 100,000,000 hours. It won the National Sleep Foundation’s Innovation of the Year award, and is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Over 50 top corporations rent SNOOs as an employee benefit to support new parents. Studies are underway to evaluate SNOO’s ability to reduce SIDS, prevent postpartum depression, and to improve the care of newborns (including for prematurity, withdrawal from drugs, etc). Learn more at: happiestbaby.com