High cost of child care worries families

By Nisa Islam Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: Jun 14, 2016 - 12:31:02 AM

WASHINGTON—If paying for your child’s college education seems out of reach, what about child care? New reports from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Child Care Aware of America show the growing costs of child care around the country can rival the costs for one year of college tuition at a four year institution. Further, the cost of full-time, center-based care for two children is the highest single household expense in most parts of the country.

The reports found that the average child care can cost as much as $17,062 annually for an infant or $12,781 annually for a four-year-old. The cost of child care is especially difficult for families living at or below the federal poverty level. For these families, full-time center-based care for an infant ranges from 24 percent of family income in Mississippi, to 85 percent of family income in Massachusetts. For single parents the costs can be overwhelming —in every state annual costs of center-based infant care averaged over 40 percent of the state median income for single mothers.

Rachel Washington had a major decision to make. Put her three-month-old Noah in day care to return to her administrative job or stay home with her baby.

“The major factor in my decision was cost. Finding good child care in Silver Springs costs so much. I could hardly believe what they charge. It’s so expensive. All of my money would be going to pay for infant care. Thank God I have a husband to take care of us,” she told The Final Call.

“It is more than we have budgeted for. I want to return to my job but I might not be able to afford it. Going back to work has its own expense. Now I would have to add child care costs and additional travel expenses.”

According to the EPI report Maryland is ranked the second-most costly state in the country for child care. It is also one of the 33 states where child care is more expensive than college. The state ranks fifth out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for the most expensive infant care.

“I told Rachel to just stay home and take care of Noah. Paying all that money that could be used for something else is ridiculous,” said her husband William. “We can afford for her to stay home. We can’t afford to pay that much for infant care. We both work nights sometimes and that’s additional fees. We don’t have family in the area to help so it’s just not affordable for us.”

The EPI report details that in Maryland annual infant care costs $13,932.00. The median family income in the state is $86,833.00. Only 27 percent of the working families can realistically afford infant care in the state. It gets worse if you’re just a minimum wage worker making an annual salary of $17,160. Infant care costs 81 percent of their income.

While families continue to struggle with child care costs and finding affordable, quality care solutions, U.S. businesses also pay the price for employee absenteeism due to child care breakdowns, losing approximately $4.4 billion in 2014.

Can child care providers even afford to send their own children to day care? The answer in many cases is, “No”. Highly educated and trained child care providers are necessary to providing a high-quality early learning program, and the quality of adult-child interactions is one of the most powerful predictors of children’s development and learning.

However, the Child Care Aware report found that in every state, child care workers would need to spend nearly 50 percent of their income in order to afford child care for their own children. In six states plus Washington, D.C., over 100 percent of the median child care worker’s income is required to put two children in center-based care.

The Final Call