child care EPI
This map provided by the Economic Policy Institute shows the annual income necessary to secure a modest yet adequate standard of living for a two-parent, two-child family in 2014. New York, including Upstate NY, is one of the most expensive parts of the country for child care.
(epi.org)
If Jimmy McMillan thinks the rent is too damn high, wait 'til he sees how expensive child care has become.
A new study by the Economic Policy Institute shows child care costs more than rent in most of the United States, and especially in Upstate New York. With two children ages 4 and 8, center-based child care costs more than the rent in 500 out of 618 family budget areas studied by the EPI.
The disparity is strongest in Binghamton, N.Y., where two-child families pay three times as much for child care as they do for housing costs. By comparison, child care costs half as much as rent in San Francisco.
Out of total family budgets, center-based child care for single-parent families with two children (ages 4 and 8) costs the most in Buffalo: 33.7 percent. In New Orleans, single parents with two kids have to set aside just a third as much -- 11.7 percent -- of their budget for child care.
According to EPI, the cost of living for "a modest yet adequate standard of living for a two-parent, two-child family" in the Syracuse metro area last year was $80,963 annually or $6,747 in monthly household income.
Perhaps the cost of child care could partly explain why Census data last month showed that one of every two children in Syracuse lives in poverty. In 2014, poverty for a family of four was defined as an income of $23,850 or less -- almost one-fourth what the EPI says pays for a "modest yet adequate" lifestyle in Central New York.
The New York Times reports the struggle is real across the country. In 33 states and the District of Columbia, infant care costs more than the average cost of in-state tuition at public colleges. In New York state, a minimum wage worker would have to give as much as 80 percent of their entire earnings to pay for child care costs.
Bloomberg says the national costs of childcare and nursery school have increased 168 percent since the end of 1990, compared with a 76 percent increase in total consumer prices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But according to CBS, the issue isn't necessarily that child care costs have gone up, it's that median household incomes peaked in 1999. The average child care worker earns just $10.60 per hour -- less than what dog trainers earn, according to a 2014 study.
The Washington Post reports nearly 11 million U.S. children younger than 5 years old depend on some type of weekly child care arrangement, according to national data from Child Care Aware of America.
"As child care consumes a larger proportion of family budgets," EPI researchers wrote in their report released Tuesday. "Funding high-quality child care services should be a paramount concern for governments, business leaders, and families alike."
» Read the full report at epi.org/publication/child-care-affordability.