Written by Lauren James Budhu
Got kids? If so, chances are you know the difficulty of finding, keeping, and maintaining optimal child care – at a reasonable price. With inflation skyrocketing at every turn, household budgets are being squeezed, forcing parents to think outside the box when it comes to their child care. And that’s if families can even find day care.
According to Data-for-Equity Research Brief, a report on child care affordability for working parents, child care is unaffordable for the majority of working parents, particularly for low-income, Black and Hispanic families. In 2018, parents working full-time and year-round typically spent more than 10 percent of their annual income on full-time child care, while low-income families spent more than a quarter of their income. Care.com’s 2022 Cost of Care survey found that over the course of four years, child care has gotten more expensive for 63% of families, with more than 51% of parents spending over 20% of their annual income. These numbers are higher than pre-pandemic numbers.
Because of these rising costs, parents have had to make significant changes to their lifestyles, such as taking on a second job (31%), reducing hours at work (26%), changing jobs (25%), and leaving the workforce altogether (21%). The last scenario became my life this year after having my second child. I have worked for more than 12 years in writing and communications, but when my husband took a position in Virginia, we decided that leaving my nonprofit marketing position and becoming a stay-at-home mom made sense for the time being. Putting two children – one infant and one toddler– in full-time child care at a facility would have cost our family most of my one-month paycheck, and nearly 20% of our annual income. I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend this quality time raising our children, but it has been a major adjustment to my life and in a way, I’ve kind of lost my identity. We are making it work but it’s definitely a work in progress.
While I opted to become a stay-at-home-mom, my family was fortunate to even find potential child care for our children. According to a Harvard Business Review Survey, nearly two-thirds of parents have had trouble finding child care throughout the pandemic and afterwards, especially Black and Hispanic families. A new Household Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau found that from Dec. 29, 2021 through Jan. 10, 2022 , over 1 in 4 families with children under the age of 5 reported that they could not send their kids to child care because of safety concerns, staffing shortages, it was unavailable, or unaffordable. Whatever way you slice it, child care options are limited across the board.
So where do we go from here? Help create child care policies that are inclusive and equitable by donating to the Child Care Law Center. This in turn will help spur federal fiscal intervention, which will assist in paying child workers more without raising rates for families. Depending on your income, your family might even qualify for child care subsidies to help offset costs. Let’s come together to help provide top-tier care for our future generations!
