We all complain about it–the high cost of child care. It’s like a second mortgage. It squeezes our budgets, but we still make more money working than we would if we stayed home full-time with our children. And over time, we know if we completely dip out of the workforce, not only do we lose our annual salaries, but we face fighting to regain the income levels we once enjoyed.
Annual child care costs now exceed state college tuition in some states. According to a recent study published by New America in October, child care now costs $9,589 a year on average, compared with $9,410 for in-state college tuition. (This is not true in New Hampshire, where the average cost of child care is $10,182, and in-state college tuition is closer to $17,000).
We all struggle with the high cost of child care–but what is the real cost of not having quality, affordable day care?
It seems like women have a few choices; but not all are affordable or feasible for all families. And some choices do not rate as high on quality. They are:
- Hire a nanny (live in or out). Note: the average cost of a nanny is more than $28,000/year.
- Contract for full-time day care at a center or in-home day care.
- Contract for part-time child care.
- Rely on family members/neighbors for low-cost or free child care.
- Adjust schedules with a partner to avoid having to pay for any child care.
- Exit the workforce altogether.
[box]I spend a little over $1,000/month to send my two-year-old to what I consider a full-time, quality program. The teacher-child ratios are high, the curriculum is robust, and the space is clean and cheerful. I take comfort knowing that my son learns in a secure place where he gets a lot of mental and physical stimulation. To get to this place, we also sat on a waiting list for seven months before a spot became available. But I am fortunate–not everyone has this choice. But it also occurs to me that over a five-year period, our family stands to lose $60,000 to cover the cost of child care.[/box]
Here are some troubling findings revealed by The New America Care Report:
- Nationally, the cost of full-time care in child care centers is 85 percent of the monthly U.S. median cost of rent.
- Nationally, only 11 percent of child care establishments are accredited by the National Association for the Education of the Young Child or the National Association for Family Child Care.
- Care is not always available for families who need it. (The number of children who need spots is far more than the number of child care openings available).
- Child care workers often do not make a living wage, which often results in high turnover. (The report profiles a caregiver in Massachusetts, one of the highest rated states in the Care Index, who still makes what would be considered a low income salary and relies on food stamps after decades of working in child care).
So how can families balance child care cost and quality with affordability?
- Supply and demand drive up costs–there is no way around it. From the research I’ve done and the waiting lists I’ve added our name to, there just aren’t enough slots for the number of families who need care in the Seacoast. It’s competitive and expensive. Put your name on all of them! Check in often and see if you can get referred by a friend.
- Do your research and demand to get what you pay for. Visit NH Child Care Search on the New Hampshire DHHS website to compare child care options and search for any citations centers have received. Don’t overpay for a center that doesn’t consistently deliver quality.
- Sign up for a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account. This allows you put up to $5,000 into an FSA, tax-free for use to offset child care expenses. You can also take a tax deduction if your child care expenses are more than 10 percent of your gross household income. Talk to your accountant about both of these options.
- See if you can compress your work week to cut down on the number of days you need paid, full-time care. More and more employers allow work-from-home days, four-day work weeks, and the like.
- Trade child care services with someone. Maybe you can share a nanny. Maybe you have Mondays off and your friend has Fridays off; this way you can swap child care duties and spend less on paid day care.
- Consider adjusting your life for a few years. It might not make sense financially for you to work full-time, part-time, or out-of-the-home, or maybe at all. And that’s okay. You really need to weigh the pros and cons of paying for child care–and whether it’s worth it.
Krysten-
We all face this challenge for sure. We’re fortunate in that my spouse works 3-11 shifts as a nurse which allowed us to use sitters in 2-3 hour segments during versus all day. As with most nursing positions the weekends requirements allowed us to skip daycare completely however, our sitter coverage routinely ran 6-7k per year for two children.
Thankfully we’ve progressed to pre-teen years (thankfully may not be the right word) which leaves us in another limbo. Not quite ready to be left alone for more than an hour or so, but not needing a high level of care. We recently hired someone to come in two nights a week to help deal with our latest challenge, marathon softball practices!
Throughout this time though we have found resources such as care.com and UNH as a great place to find sitters. This isn’t to say it’s been perfect, we’ve been through our share of sitters in 9 years. We’ve also had some outstanding experiences. Sadly, the best one have been Seniors in high school and college meaning they eventually move on and we had to do the same.
We were fortunate in that we had the option to choose less hours for my spouse and be able to afford sitters, I can’t say though we lived an elaborate life especially seeing as any vacations we wanted to take were funneled to the childcare line item in the budget.
E
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