The Staggering Expense of Raising Children Today - Expert Edition Episode 55
Today, I want to talk about something that's been on my mind a lot. Did you know some families pay as much for childcare each month as they do for their house? That's right! For example, I pay $3,400 a month just so someone can take care of my kids while I work. That's the same as my house payment! It's crazy expensive, and it's not just me feeling this pinch. I read an article from the U.S. Department of Labor that says childcare costs a lot of money everywhere in the United States. This makes it super hard for families to afford to have kids, and it's tough on the people who work in childcare too. They don't get paid very much, which doesn't seem fair since they do such an important job. Can't wait to hear what you think, so be sure to let me know!
New Childcare Data Shows Prices Are Untenable for Families - http://blog.dol.gov/2023/01/24/new-childcare-data-shows-prices-are-untenable-for-families
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema: [00:00:00] You guys I'm almost embarrassed to say this and I just did the final numbers after going back to work but I pay $3,400 a month for child care. Let me say that again. I pay $3,400 a month for child care. You know how much my mortgage is in northern california right outside the san francisco For a four bedroom three bath house, 3, 400 and that's how much I'm paying in child care.
It is blowing my mind. And I got this email from my friend, Damien Peters, who has Just sends out some very interesting emails about his life. And he writes over at his pen name is the pragmatic Mr. Peters. I love his emails. It catches you up on his life and what's going on. He's just an excellent writer, but the way that this email hit me was crazy.
And in this email, he had this article [00:01:00] cited and it's an article from the U S department of labor and it's titled new childcare data shows prices are untenable for families and I read the summary that they have, but I'm going to put the link in the show notes for this article, because it's so good for you to check out The facts in here are ridiculous.
So families with younger children in the United States pay a lot of money for child care, whether it's for after school care or full daycare for infants. Child care consumes a large share of family's income among those who pay for child care services. The National Database of Child Care Prices is a new source of data showing how prices vary by child care provider type and age.
In 2300 Countries over 47 states. This makes the database the most comprehensive source of local child care price data. Using this data, the women's Bureau released a new report today that shows that child care prices vary substantially across the [00:02:00] country, but prices are untenable for families, even in lower price areas using the most recent data from 2018 and adjusted for inflation to 2022 dollars.
Child care prices range from 4800. Which is a $5,357 in 2022 dollars for school age home-based childcare in small counties to $15,417, which is $17,171 in 2022 dollars for infant center based care in very large counties. These prices represent between 8 percent and 19 percent of a median family's income per child.
Before I get more of this, I understand if people don't want to have kids I totally understand. Because these prices are ridiculous. These kids aren't cheap and that's just for child care. That's not clothes, [00:03:00] food, none of this stuff. Kids are expensive these days. So in this report, they have two new interactive maps that show child care prices and child care prices as a share of family income at the county level.
These prices show that in nearly every county, Child care prices were high relative to family income, pricing families out of paid child care. Higher child care prices are especially detrimental to maternal employment as mother's employment drops in areas where, as mother's employment drops in areas with more expensive child care, even in places where women's wages are higher.
I can definitely believe that. And the thing is that even though child care is expensive, child care providers are operating on a thin margin and child care workers receive very low wages, a median of 13 dollars and 22 cents an hour. This is lower than almost any other occupation. And these are the people taking care of our kids and wages [00:04:00] fall below the living wage in the United States.
Failing to meet most child care workers basic needs. Low paying child care sector means that employers cannot attract sufficient workers, and many areas are considered child care deserts, leaving families with limited options. Yet, families cannot afford to pay more, meaning that the child care sector needs substantial government investment to function adequately or even prosper.
Quality, affordable, accessible child care support, higher employment and full time work hours reduces poverty and reduces social economic disparities and employment and early child care education. You guys. This is like rock in my world, so not only am I paying a grip for child care, but they, the workers that are actually taking care of my children who I love dearly are barely making a living wage and it's just ridiculous.
And you know what? My child care costs could be way more thankfully, I have [00:05:00] extra hands on deck their dad's shipping and. My family and extended family helped take care of my kids, but I cannot imagine. I cannot imagine if I wasn't in this privileged position, what child care would be like, and I know there's other countries and, we can argue about how efficient government support is and all of these kind of things, but in other countries, child care is a priority.
I know in Japan they have nannies come to your house. That's fully supplemented by the government to come to your house, help you take care of your child. And I don't know. I think this is just a wake up call that something needs to shift. Capitalism in this case is not really working.
I want to know from where you're at I want you to take a look at this this report. I want to know, like, how much you're paying in child care. What has helped in my dreams, I thought I was going to marry someone who had that mom, like. Usually like Caribbean or African miles and, they come and just [00:06:00] swoop up and take care of your kids and not have to worry about childcare costs.
But that is my reality. But what have you guys done to reduce childcare costs? How much you spend it on childcare, leave comments and let me know, because hit me up, email me, DM me, whatever you want. Let me know. So we can have a pity party together. And if you're in another country, I especially want to hear how much you're paying for childcare.
All right. See you guys on Thursday.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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