North Dakota Adds Incentive for Businesses to Subsidize Child Care

(Getty Images via the North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Mary Steurer. North Dakota Monitor) – With the goal of supporting working families, state lawmakers this session passed a new tax credit that subsidizes child care for North Dakota businesses.

Senate Bill 2282 applies specifically to child care stipends. The tax credit allows employers that offer this benefit to write off 50% of their child care contributions off their income taxes. Businesses can claim up to $1,000 in child care subsidies per employee toward this total.

Andrea Pfennig, vice president of government affairs for the Greater North Dakota Chamber, called the tax credit a “step in the right direction.”

In written testimony submitted in favor of the bill, Pfennig said in a 2024 survey of chamber members nearly 70% of respondents saw child care as an issue.

Some feel the tax credit doesn’t do enough. North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Executive Director Dalton Erickson said it will leave out many North Dakota families.