MA Child Care Most Expensive In Country: Report

If it seems as if you're paying more than most others for child care, you probably have a point. Massachusetts is the most expensive state in America when it comes to infant care, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.

The EPI said it costs $20,913 a year — or $1,743 a month — to obtain child care in Massachusetts. Minnesota and California are the only other states where infant care costs more than $16,000 per year.

Child care for two children — an infant and a 4-year-old — costs $36,008 in Massachusetts, EPI said.

The cost doesn't get evened out by the Bay State residents' earning power, either. While the median family income is a nation-high $92,108, so is the 22.7 percent of that it costs for infant care.

By U.S. Department of Health and Human Service standards, infant care is only affordable for 5.4 percent of Massachusetts families. Those families likely don't include a minimum-wage worker: EPI said a minimum-wage worker would need to work 44 full-time weeks straight just to pay for infant care.

Annual infant care costs in Massachusetts cost significantly more than a year's rent ($14,419) or a year's tuition at a four-year public college ($12,778.) Massachusetts is one of 33 states and D.C. where child care costs more than a year at such a college.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren in February announced a universal child care plan early in her presidential campaign. Warren's plan would cap child care costs at 7 percent of a family's income until a child reaches school age. Families with incomes more than 200 percent below the poverty line wouldn't have to pay for child care at all.

"In the wealthiest country on the planet, access to affordable and high-quality child care and early education should be a right, not a privilege reserved for the rich," Warren said in February.

EPI said if that percentage was capped at 7 percent for families, it would save them $13,967 per year. That would free up more than 34,000 parents to work, expanding the Massachusetts economy by nearly $5 billion, according to the report.