Child care has grown so expensive that full-time care now costs more than rent in 16 of the nation’s 100 largest cities, according to a new report.
LendingTree, the personal finance site, compared the monthly cost of infant care with average rents for a two-bedroom home in big cities. The LendingTree report, published Sept. 16, draws on child care figures from the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America and compares them with federal rent data.
It’s the latest in a string of surveys and studies to sound alarms on the rising costs of child care.
Child care salaries are low, and profit margins thin, in part because of state regulations that generally require high ratios of workers to children, according to child care experts.
Another factor is real estate: A day care center in an affluent suburb might face the same high rents or mortgage costs as the affluent suburbanites who live there.
“Even though parents are paying these very high prices, child care providers are actually making very little money,” said Sandra Bishop, senior director of research at Child Care Aware of America.
“The system is not working for anyone, really,” Bishop said. “Families can’t find child care. If they find care, it’s not affordable. It hurts parents, it hurts communities, it hurts businesses.”