Facing rising costs, families skip childcare altogether

The cost of childcare — for everything from day care to after school programs — has risen so much that the number of households paying for it is actually decreasing, according to a new report from the Bank of America Institute.

The number of households making monthly childcare payments is down 1.6% from last year, according to Bank of America Institute economist Taylor Bowley.

“Fewer families with multiple paychecks are making childcare payments, especially in lower income households,” Bowley said. “So that kind of suggests to us that one parent, and frankly it's often a mom, is stepping out of the workforce to take on caregiving full time.”

Daniel Hains, with the National Association for the Education of Young Children, has surveyed childcare providers earlier this year.

“We know these costs are going up for families. They're also going up for childcare programs,” said Hains.

Labor, he said, is a big expense.

“You need really small staff-child ratios, where individual educators have a lot of time with individual children,” Hains said.

And other costs are rising: One in three programs reported higher rent, and nearly half said insurance is more expensive.

Some states, including West Virginia and New Mexico, have stepped in to use taxpayer money to help families with the higher costs.

“States across the political spectrum have really recognized that early childhood is kind of a no brainer in terms of investment,” said Taryn Morrissey at American University. “Because if you get children, young children, in particular, into high quality educational settings, that's going to pay off for the workforce of the future.”

Morrissey said if providers and families continue to be squeezed, kids might be less prepared for school, and the broader economy might suffer.

“Reliable, affordable childcare helps parents get to work,” Morrissey said.

And if more mothers drop out of the workforce because they can’t afford childcare, she said, that’s going to widen the wage gap.