BLS data shows most Target families juggle work and caregiving

When 91.6% of families with children under 18 have at least one employed parent, the workplace stops being separate from home life. For Target’s store teams, that means a missed bus, a daycare pickup, a sick child or a partner’s shift change can land directly on the schedule board. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said 32.9 million U.S. families included children under 18 in 2025, and 97.4% of married-couple families with children had at least one employed parent.

That is the reality behind the scheduling fights, shift swaps and time-off requests that play out every day in retail. Among married-couple families with children, 66.3% had both parents employed, and the BLS said 71.8% of families with an unemployed member still had at least one employed family member. It also found that 63.2% of those families had at least one member working full time. In other words, many Target workers are not choosing between work and family in the abstract. They are choosing between the start of a shift and a school pickup window, between staying late and making a childcare handoff, between taking a call from a pediatrician and keeping a store plan intact.

That makes predictability and manager judgment just as important as hourly pay. Target says eligible team members receive up to four weeks of paid family leave at 100% pay replacement. The company also reimburses up to $10,000 per child for eligible adoption expenses and up to $10,000 per attempt for eligible surrogacy expenses, and says eligible workers get paid time off, sick pay and paid national holidays. On its careers pages, Target says team members also have access to 24/7 virtual care and mental health support, benefits that matter when a family problem does not wait for a weekend.

Target has also tried to make its schedule more flexible at the store level. Its on-demand store roles let workers pick up available shifts through a scheduling app or website after orientation and training, a setup that can help parents cover gaps without blowing up the rest of the week. That flexibility matters most in a business where Target says the vast majority of its team are U.S. hourly workers in stores and supply chain facilities, with a starting wage range of $15 to $24 per hour and an average frontline wage above $18.50.

The BLS data gives a blunt backdrop for those benefits: in most households with children, somebody is already working, and often both parents are. For Target’s team members, that means the difference between a short retail stop and a longer career can come down to whether the schedule is stable, the leave is real and the manager understands that family life is part of the job, not a distraction from it.