Egg freezing or childcare benefit
- Kind
- Policy and health systems
Prompt
You sit on the employee benefits committee of a 300-person software company. The company has $400,000 a year to spend on one new benefit, and the committee must choose between two proposals. The first would cover up to $20,000 per employee for egg freezing, which lets people store their eggs so they can try for a pregnancy later in life, although it does not guarantee one. About 20 employees a year would likely use it. Supporters say it lets employees build their careers without giving up on having children. The second would give a $3,000 yearly childcare subsidy to each of the 130 employees who already have young children. Its supporters say egg freezing quietly signals that the company expects people to delay having families, and that the money would help far more people as a childcare subsidy. Which proposal would you recommend, and why?
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After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Critical thinking
- Ethical reasoning
- Teamwork and collaboration
How to approach this question
This MMI station tests whether you can allocate a limited budget fairly when one option helps a few people a great deal and the other helps many people a little. Name the stakeholders: the roughly 20 employees who'd use the fertility benefit, the 130 parents of young children, employees who fit neither group, and the company culture each choice signals. Weigh the numbers against the size of the benefit for each person, and take seriously the concern about what each option implies about when employees should start families. Ask what employees themselves want, for example through a survey. Then recommend one proposal clearly and explain your reasoning. When a colleague's remark exposes the kind of pressure critics feared, say whether it changes your view and how you'd respond to it.
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