Child Care Costs More Than College In Maryland, Study Shows

Child care isn’t cheap in Maryland, which is one of the most expensive states in the country for those seeking out this service. Maryland ranked 7th out of 50 states for the cost of infant care, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Parents in the Free State shell out $15,335 for infant care on average every year, based on the latest research from the institute. That breaks down to $1,278 each month, or the equivalent for some of a second mortgage payment.

While the average cost of care for an infant is more than $15,000 annually, care for a 4-year-old is $10,254, or $855 per month, according to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank’s calculations.

Child care is more expensive than in-state tuition at a four-year public college in Maryland, which is $9,289, according to the institute, a nonprofit that analyzes workers and economic policies.

Marylanders are not alone in this reality, as parents in more than half the country are paying more for child care than it costs to go to a public college in their state, the institute reported.

Child care is considered affordable if it takes up no more than 7 percent of a family's income, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

By those standards, infant care is only affordable for 8.9 percent of Maryland families.

Infant care for one child eats up 17.6 percent of a median family’s income in Maryland, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

The institute suggests certain solutions for lowering the costs of child care, including capping child-care expenses at 7 percent of a family's income.

That would save a typical family in Maryland $8,872 and would free up nearly 29,000 more parents to work.

Here's where infant care is most expensive, according to the study:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Massachusetts
3. California
4. Minnesota
5. Connecticut
6. New York
7. Maryland
8. Colorado
9. Washington
10. Virginia

See the report on the cost of child care from the Economic Policy Institute.

To offset some of the costs of child care, Maryland provides financial assistance to eligible working families through the Child Care Scholarship Program.