Only 11 Percent Of NH Families Can Afford Child Care: Report

Child care still costs the proverbial arm and a leg, but it could be a lot worse than it is in New Hampshire. It costs $12,791 a year for infant care in the Granite State, about half of the most expensive area but still more than double the least expensive, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.

The EPI said it costs $1,066 a month to get infant care in New Hampshire. Washington D.C. is the most expensive at more than $2,000 a month - or $24,243 - and Mississippi is the cheapest at about $450 a month - or $5,436 a year.

Child care for two children - an infant and a 4-year-old - costs $10,348 in New Hampshire, the EPI said.

The cost does get evened out a bit by Granite State residents' earning power. The median family income is $83,565, and the 15.3 percent of that it costs for infant care is on the lower end. In Massachusetts, for instance, more than 22 percent of a median family income goes to infant care.

By U.S. Department of Health and Human Service standards, infant care is only affordable for 11.2 percent of New Hampshire families. Those families likely don't include a minimum-wage worker: the 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 New Hampshire are roughly as much as a year's rent ($12,932) but significantly less than a year's in-state tuition at a four-year public college ($15,949.) New Hampshire is one of 17 states where child care costs less 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.

The EPI said if that percentage was capped at 7 percent for families, it would save them $6,637 per year. That would free up more than 4,700 parents to work, expanding the New Hampshire economy by more than $500 million, according to the report.