Carla Fried: Overdue from Uncle Sam and LinkedIn: Recognition of moms' sacrifices

It took a global pandemic that hit women especially hard to push LinkedIn to add one of the world’s toughest jobs to its list of career titles: stay-at-home mother.Users can now choose “self-employed” as a job description and not be required to add in the name of a business. LinkedIn is also working on adding other non-paying job descriptions, such as “parental leave” and “family care.”The federal government is also belatedly recognizing how hard the pandemic has been on working parents, forcing women out of the workplace at a far higher rate than men. While the best-known provision of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, signed into law in March, sends direct payments of $1,400 to lower-income households, the law also includes additional cash payments to support families with children.Starting this summer, millions of families with children younger than 18 are going to start receiving a monthly stipend of as much as $300 per child, delivered as a monthly check, not some obtuse benefit that you receive when you file your federal taxes.The child tax credit as a working mom lifelineThe federal child tax credit (CTC) has been around for years, but the American Rescue Plan gives it a complete…
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