Happy Child Care Unaffordability Day to all who celebrate!

This is my family’s reality: We pay over $1,400 a month for our 2-year-old son to go to child care. That’s about 24% of our household income and more than our rent.  

To put that number in perspective, the federal government says that families can afford to pay 7% of their household income for child care. In other words, my family is paying more than triple what is affordable. 

And that cost burden would get much heavier if we were to start paying for infant care for our second child, who is due this spring. If we had both of our children in care, we could be spending fully half — 51% — of our household income to cover the cost, which is about seven times more than the federal government says is affordable. 

Like many people, I am a shift worker, so I am paid for the days I work. If I stay home, for example, when my child is sick, I continue paying for care, and my earned sick time — which is calculated before tips — doesn’t cover the cost. I am often forced to make the choice to send my child to child care when he is sick just to be able to pay our bills.

This is all incredibly stressful, and some families have it even worse than we do in a state with some of the highest child care costs in the nation. If they earn less, have more young children, or live in a more expensive child care market, they’re put into an even deeper financial hole. 

Today, I’m told, is Child Care Unaffordability Day. April 29 is apparently the day when a Minnesota family of four making the median income and paying for median priced child care hits that 7% federal child care affordability mark. Turns out my family already surpassed 7% a couple of weeks ago. That means for the remainder of the year, ordinary Minnesota families like mine will continue struggling to pay way more than they can afford for child care — typically about 22% of their family income.     

Stop and think about that for a moment. How will parents deal with these crushing costs over the next 240+ days of 2024? Some will have to leave the workforce, which is what I regrettably will be doing after our second child is born. That denies me income now to support our family, and also stops me from building my future earning capacity. And it prevents me from paying into a 401(k) or Social Security, which will affect my ability to retire with dignity.  

Other families will cope differently. Forget about saving for a home or college for their kids, they will spend any savings they have built up or go into debt to afford child care. These no-win choices have negative lifelong implications for young families. They crush dreams. The unaffordable cost of child care is crushing the dreams of thousands of Minnesota families. 

The solution to this child care affordability crisis is pretty straightforward. 

In 2023 the Legislature set a goal that no Minnesota family would ever have to pay more than 7% of their income for child care. This year, legislation (SF3790/HF3681) sponsored by Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, and Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, DFL-Eden Prairie, showed the way forward with a program called Great Start Affordability Scholarships. 

How much would getting to that 7% goal save your family? 

Go to the MyChildCareSavingsMN.com calculator to get an estimate.  I did, and it was stunning.   

Why should government cover this cost? 

Government covers 100% of the cost of K-12 education, and that public investment is very popular. It has deep support because we realize that most parents can’t afford to pay for that education by themselves, and that an investment in education has an amazing impact on our communities and economy. 

Given that, why not also help with early education, which brain researchers say is every bit as important as K-12 education? 

We can certainly see the difference our child care program makes for our son’s learning and development. It is sad to think that he will miss out on that learning engagement and socialization when his sibling is born because we won’t be able afford it anymore. 

Again, Minnesota parents who support this approach are not asking to get early education for free, as happens in the K-12 years. Under this plan, we’d still be paying 7% of our incomes for child care. We just need a little help. 

Passing this child care affordability legislation also would give a huge boost to the many Minnesota businesses that currently can’t find enough workers because so many parents can’t afford to put their kids in child care and join the workforce. Moreover, helping those businesses hire employees to fuel their growth helps the Minnesota economy, which is important for our collective quality-of-life. 

I’m not going to wish you a Happy Child Care Unaffordability Day. It’s a pretty depressing day after all. But let’s at least make it a day of awareness, a day when lawmakers and voters learn more about the child care affordability crisis. 

Better yet, let’s make it a day of action, when parents join the movement to speak out in favor of legislation to address this awful child care affordability crisis that is stealing so many families’ dreams.