Child-Care Costs at $56,000 Force Parents Into Side Hustles

  • Parents embrace more demanding work schedules to offset costs
  • Families paying for child care dip into savings at faster rate
Stephanie Rosario, a mom and part-time student in Bridgeport, Connecticut, makes roughly $52,000 a year working at a preschool and drives for Lyft Inc. to supplement her income.Photographer: Sarah Blesener/Bloomberg
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A dramatic increase in child-care costs since the pandemic is forcing parents to find new ways of making ends meet, from working part time at a daycare for a discount to driving for a ride-share service on weekends.

In a sign of how extraordinary the financial pressure has become — at a time when housing, groceries and other everyday items have also grown more expensive — even workers with full-time positions at the likes of big banks and tech firms are among those embracing such solutions, according to interviews with nearly two dozen parents.