This is a perfect example of perfection being the enemy of good.
Allowing, even encouraging, employees to work from home in order to temporarily care for a sick child is a good thing. The complainers must work somewhere that when you take off from work, someone else just comes along and does all your work for you. Needless to say, that's a rarity and also sucks for your coworkers.
The answer is that if he tried to pardon them then the senate would have convicted him in his impeachment and the entire white house legal team would have walked out (along with a lot of other white house staff).
If someone asks how to calculate a living wage or a family wage, tell them to ask the Army. They have all kinds of formulas for determining how much you get paid based on your family situation.