Tesla, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a Friday tweet that he plans to “increase childcare benefits at all of his companies significantly.”
Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk also runs The Boring Company and Neuralink. The celebrity billionaire is one of the founders of OpenAI as well. Musk was looking to add social media giant Twitter to his collection for $44 billion USD, but the deal fell apart earlier this week.
Tesla employees currently get 16 weeks of parental leave and up to $40,000 in reimbursement for fertility and family planning treatments.
“Kids are worth it if at all possible,” Musk, a father of nine, said in his tweet. He was responding to a user who asked for his thoughts on people who believe they shouldn’t have too many kids for cost reasons.
Musk added that he hopes other companies will follow his lead in raising childcare benefits for employees. In addition, he also announced that his grantmaking organization, the Musk Foundation, plans to start donating directly to families.
He said that more details should be announced sometime next month.
Kids are worth it if at all possible. I’m planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly.
Hopefully, other companies do same.
Also, Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to families.
Hopefully, details to be announced next month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022
In a previous tweet, Musk said he is doing his best to “help the underpopulation crisis.” The entrepreneur sees the globally declining birth rate as “the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”
Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.
A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2022
Musk has repeatedly warned that the birth rate dropoff the world is currently seeing, left unchecked, could eventually lead to humanity’s collapse. It is a problem he is particularly passionate about. Musk has touched upon the issue (and possible solutions) time and again, including during a recent interview on the audio podcast Getting Stoned with Johnna Crider.
