Parents across America are finding themselves in the same bind – the steep cost of childcare is making it nigh on impossible for many to afford.
According to a health department definition, childcare is not ‘affordable’ in any of the 50 states, but some areas are up against a higher cost burden than others.
New Mexico has the least affordable childcare in the country, fresh data from GOBankingRates shows.
The report found families there must fork out over 15 percent of their income on nursery care for kids. This is almost double the amount that families are spending in the most affordable states.
In South Dakota, the cheapest state, families are typically spending 9 percent of their wages on childcare.
Mother-of-four Paige Turner told DailyMail.com how her and her husband spent a monumental $60,000 on childcare fees in a year
GOBankingRates named New Mexico, California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Nevada and Michigan as the ten least affordable states for childcare in the country
The study lays bare the the difficult reality for many Americans, where childcare costs are in many cases the biggest yearly expense for families.
The US Department of Health and Human Services defines ‘affordable’ as 7 percent of a person’s income. Using that criteria, not a single state offers its residents affordable childcare.
Mother-of-four Paige Turner previously told DailyMail.com how her and her husband spent a monumental $60,000 on childcare fees in a year, which was more than double their mortgage payments.
The family live in Massachusetts, which is among the ten least affordable states in the US, according to the latest GOBankingRates data.
To provide a picture of how much parents can expect to pay in every state, the personal finance website analyzed the most recent publicly available data from ChildCare Aware’s Child Care Data Center and the US Census.
It looked at both center-based daycare and home-based childcare costs for the first four years of a child’s life, and how much each family is putting towards childcare relative to their income.
Each state was ranked based on overall affordability across each of these factors.
It named New Mexico, California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Nevada and Michigan as the ten least affordable states for childcare in the country.
In New Mexico, daycare typically costs $9,243 per child per year, while family child care costs $8,101 on average.
Massachusetts was the state with the highest center-based child care costs – at $20,045 a year.
On average, families in the state are spending 17.25 percent of their income on this care for their kids.
In New York, meanwhile, the average household is spending 16.36 percent of their income, and 15.85 percent of their income in Washington.
One of the reasons for spiraling childcare costs across the country is an increase in demand – coupled with a shortage of workers in the sector.
Mother-of-three and licensed attorney Crystal Gamach, who lives in Washington, told DailyMail.com last year how she was unable to find anywhere to take her children when she sought part-time care in Spokane.
Mother-of-three and licensed attorney Crystal Gamache, pictured, was unable to find anywhere to take her children part-time in Spokane, Washington
She said in the past she relied on the help of babysitters but ended up effectively paying to go to work as her childcare costs were higher than her wage.
Crystal now works as a professor at a local university where she teaches law specializing in rights and policies affecting children. The family is supported by her husband who works in real estate private equity.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘Women who train to be doctors and attorneys often meet their husbands when studying and they end up in the same high tax brackets.
‘It means these women can afford not to work and fall out of the workplace. But we lose our most brilliant female workers this way.’
