Child Care In CT Among Most Expensive In Country: Report

When it comes to child care in Connecticut there are few bills that are more expensive for a family. Connecticut is the 5th most expensive state for child care in the country, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. In fact, child care is so expensive for infants that it is quite often the equivalent of a second mortgage payment or more for families.

The average cost of infant care in the state is $15,501 or $1,292 per month while care for 4-year-old's is $12,731 annually or $1,061 per month. Infant care is more more expensive than in-state tuition at a public four-year college and is also more expensive than average housing costs.

Infant care for one child eats up 18.3 percent of the median family's income in Connecticut. Child care is considered affordable if it takes up no more than seven percent of a family's income, according to The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Only 11.5 percent of Connecticut families come under that mark.

The figures paint an even worse picture for minimum wage workers. A minimum wage worker would have to work 38 full-time weeks to pay for one infant. Connecticut is eventually going to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, but it would still put paid child care out of reach without subsidies for many minimum wage families.

Connecticut offers child care subsidies through its Care 4 Kids program sponsored by Connecticut Office of Early Childhood. Income guidelines are based on the state median income. The cutoff for those applying after Oct. 1, 2018 is $56,275 for a family of four and for a family of three it is $47,271.

Many families have come to rely on grandparents for primary child care during the workday in order to avoid the hefty cost of daycare. The New York Times recently published an article on "intensive grandparenting," where grandparents shoulder regular child care and some housekeeping duties in the U.S.

Read the full Economic Policy Institute report here.