Welcome to the Prerata podcast, a podcast that takes 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

Filling in for Dan Primack, I'm Kim Hart. On today's show, Trump's midterm rally blitz and Twitter's user loss.

But first, paying for child care is the new front in the job war. The pay gap between young men and women is steadily closing, but there's still a chasm between what older men and women earn,

mostly due to the financial strain of raising children. That means that even as we make progress

in narrowing the wage gap for new workers who've recently entered the job market, those gains

will evaporate when these young women become mothers. So some companies, including Starbucks,

Campbell's Soup, and American Express, have begun offering corporate child care benefits to

keep women from

dropping out of the workforce. Child care costs aren't trivial. I remember being shocked at how

pricey daycare was when I had my first child four years ago. In fact, the average family spends

nearly 8% of their monthly income on child care, according to the Center for American Progress.

For families earning less than $1,500 a month, they spend around

half of it on child care. For some women, the cost of child care is a factor in their decision

about whether or not to start a family. But doing what's best for women workers isn't the only

thing driving this. As unemployment hits its lowest level in almost 50 years, companies are

adding perks to lower workers. We've seen that with minimum wage hikes and loan assistance programs.

In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with this on Axios reporter Erica Pandi.

But first, this.

Axios chief technology correspondent, Enah Freed, shares breaking news and analysis

on the most consequential companies and players in tech from the Valley to D.C.

Subscribe to get smarter faster at signup.axios.com.

And now, back to the pro rata podcast.

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