The cost of child care is rising, and it’s causing parents to reassess whether they’ll have more children.
More than half of parents of children younger than 15 reported spending 20% or more of their household income on child care last year, a survey from child care hiring site Care.com found, an increase from the 31% who said the same in 2019. That cost exceeds the 7% threshold the US Department of Health and Human Services uses as a benchmark definition for affordable child care. It may get worse: 58% of families said they’d spend upwards of $10,000 on childcare this year, compared to the 45% who said they’d spend that much or more in 2019.
