Caregiving Stipend for Work Travel

Fiscally Sponsored Projects may choose to adopt this policy or use it to inform similar policies of their own. This policy applies to CS&S core staff.

Purpose

Primary caretakers can face hurdles when traveling for work due to responsibilities related to caring for their dependents. This policy aims to make work travel more inclusive by reducing barriers to participation related to caregiving obligations.

This policy is offered to extend financial assistance so that employees can participate in work events and meetings to the best of their ability. This policy covers both in-person and virtual meetings, and can be applied to a variety of care situations. It covers, but is not limited to, child care, elder care, and disability care.

This policy is a supplement to the CS&S travel and expense reimbursement policy.

Context

What we offer

With manager approval, CS&S offers a one-time daily stipend to its employees with caregiving responsibilities who must travel for work. The policy does not have provisions for offering expense reimbursement for actual costs incurred as a result of caregiving responsibilities. Stipends should be requested for each instance of travel.

Stipend amount

The daily stipend should be sufficient to be of great help in supporting the costs of the employee. Costs related to caregiving obligations may have great variability based on location and specific provider choices made by employees.

The stipend amount can vary by project and budget. A suggested stipend of $200 USD per day is in alignment with similar policies of peer organizations.

How to use the stipend

The employee is responsible for entering into any contracts on their or their dependents behalf. After the stipend is approved, the employee can use the stipend to assist with caregiving costs as outlined below.

1. Securing professional hometown care while attending an in-person or virtual meeting
2. Securing an alternative caretaker (e.g. family member) to travel to the attendee's home or meeting site while the attendee participates in the meeting
3. Supporting costs for a dependent to travel to and stay at an alternative caretaker’s home (e.g. a family member) while the attendee participates in the meeting
4. Supporting costs for the dependent to travel to an in-person meeting site and/or the cost of care at or near the meeting venue while the attendee attends the meeting

Tax implications

The IRS does not consider certain items such as caregiving expenses to be allowable business expenses. Thus the stipend will be deemed as employee compensation and will be reported as taxable income to the recipient. The stipend will represent distinct taxable income to the employee.

Tax deduction benefit

TriNet benefits include provisions for tax advantaged dependent care spending. Employees are encouraged to make use of the tax advantaged Child and Dependent Care salary deductions which provide support for many expenditures related to caregiving.

Procedure

For employees:

• Prior to travel, employee requests a stipend to manager via email. Fiscally sponsored projects, please cc your FSP program manager on stipend requests.
• Manager reviews request and approve/deny via email
• FSP files request and approval emails as documentation and sends stipend request to CS&S HR Team
• HR enters stipend payment into payroll
• Stipend is paid at the next payroll cycle after the travel is concluded