How to Allow Americans to Have More Kids

 

"The Trump administration really wants Americans to have more kids. President Trump, the self-proclaimed “fertilization president,” has called for a new “baby boom.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says communities with big families should get more government funds. The on-again-off-again Trump ally Elon Musk, father of at least 14, has warned that “civilization will disappear” if we don’t get busy.

 

Panicked by falling fertility rates — which hit a record low of 1.6 children per woman in 2024 — the administration has floated all kinds of ideas to encourage babymaking, from launching $1,000 “Trump accounts” for newborns to soliciting outside proposals, like “motherhood medals” for moms of at least six.

 

Yet the administration is blind to a proven fix that is right in front of us, one that costs it nothing: hybrid work.

 

Simply put, working from home juices fertility. About 290,000 extra children a year have been born in the United States since the Covid pandemic fueled more work-from-home opportunities, according to a Stanford University working paper. If both parents move from full time in the office to working at home at least one day a week, they will average about 0.5 extra children, pushing toward the “replacement” level of 2.1, said the Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, an author of the study. That’s a result of both opportunity (“You can’t get pregnant by email,” Bloom told me) and availability (less time commuting equals more time for parenting). Bloom called working from home “the most effective fertility-boosting policy out there.”

 

Other countries have seen a similar boost. Norway’s 2020 lockdown led to “a significant and persistent increase in births nine months later,” according to one study. In Italy, flexible working arrangements led both men and women to report increased desire for more children. A study in Germany concluded that the spread of high-speed internet between 2008 and 2012 increased fertility among highly educated women, because it allowed them to work from home.

 

Both Tokyo and South Korea are exploring flexible work policies to boost fertility rates.

 

Yet Mr. Trump has set a terrible example on remote work, demanding on Day 1 that federal “employees return to work in person.” Dozens of major companies have followed suit, scaling back or eliminating hybrid and remote options, including Paramount, Dell and TikTok, despite extensive research showing that working from home doesn’t reduce productivity and may in fact boost it, while making employees happier.”

 

Remote work significantly helps increase American birth rates by providing flexibility that eases the, often high, costs and time constraints of childcare. Studies show remote work added roughly 80,000 to 100,000 births annually between 2021 and 2025, as couples with remote options saved on commutes and had more time for family, particularly benefiting women over 35.

 

How Remote Work Helps Increase Fertility

 

    Time Savings: Remote workers save, on average, 55 minutes per day on commuting, which is redirected toward childcare and household responsibilities.

 

    Flexibility with Kids: It allows parents to manage school pickups, sick children, and doctor appointments without needing to take full days off.

 

    Higher Fertility Rates: Research indicates that couples where at least one partner works from home (even 1-2 days a week) are more likely to have children and express intent to have more.

    Impact on Older Mothers: The effect is most pronounced for women over 35, who often face tighter time constraints in balancing demanding careers with family life.

 

    Geographic Flexibility: Remote work enables families to move to more affordable, suburban areas with more space for children, reducing the financial pressure of high-cost urban living.

 

Other Strategies to Increase Birth Rates

Beyond remote work, experts and researchers suggest other measures to boost fertility:

 

    Affordable Childcare: Subsidies or lower-cost, accessible childcare options make raising children less daunting.

    Enhanced Parental Leave: Strong, paid, and accessible parental leave policies can support, rather than hinder, career growth.

    Supportive Communities: Strengthening local, family-oriented networks and community structures can reduce the isolation and pressure of raising children, particularly for dual-earner households.

    Flexible Work Schedules: For jobs that cannot be fully remote, flexible,, and predictable scheduling helps workers balance, or combine, professional and personal lives.

 

While remote work is a "no/low cost" policy that encourages family formation, it is most effective when paired with supportive, family-friendly workplace cultures and policies.

 

It turns out that members of Lithuanian parlament have already created a welfare state for a narrow circle of elites, based on drug transit. And they left us with a bagel hole. Maybe Nausėda, Ruginienė and Kasčiūnas would stop discussing dance steps A, B and C, which they would do if NATO, like everything else in this world, went the way of the extinct Dodo bird, and work on organizing remote workplaces so that Lithuanians can still have children, take care of their children and stay in Lithuania?