Child care costs represent a higher percent of median family income in jurisdictions like Baltimore City and Somerset County than in other parts of Maryland, according to a CNS analysis of recently published data from the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Child care prices went up by an estimated rate of 11.4% throughout the United States between 2018 and 2022, including in Maryland, according to Chrisin Landivar, senior researcher at the Women’s Bureau.
The Labor Department data includes information about median child care prices at the county level throughout the U.S. In actual dollars, families in Central Maryland may spend more on child care than families in other parts of the state, as seen in Montgomery and Howard counties. They had the highest toddler and preschool child care median prices in the state in 2022 at $15,350. For families in these counties, child care could represent 10% and 11% of their income respectively, based on a median family income of over $120,000 in both counties.
The increase in child care prices may hit some families harder than others, depending on where they live. In Baltimore City and Somerset County, yearly toddler and preschool care median prices are $10,922 and $7,521 respectively, according to the data. That represents 17% and 13% of median family incomes in those areas, much higher than other parts of the state.
According to Landivar, the District of Columbia has some of the highest child care prices in the United States, with nearby counties in Virginia and Maryland also having high prices in comparison to the rest of the country, even after accounting for income disparities.
“In some counties, the family incomes are quite a bit lower. That doesn’t mean that the child care price declines by that same amount,” she said. “So if you have families that have lower income, it becomes unaffordable for them. It’s consuming a larger share of their income.”
Landivar cites the impact of the pandemic on the child-care workforce on costs in Maryland.
“Throughout the pandemic, Maryland experienced a lot of losses in child care spaces. [It has] one of the slowest recoveries,” she said.
A study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services looking at the impact of the pandemic on the child care industry, shows that Maryland – one of the states “where the child care industry was hit hardest” – had a 44% decline in employees in child care during the height of the pandemic, according to the study. As a result, Maryland and other hard hit states, “saw slower recovery” by June 2022.
The study showed that Maryland also had an 8.4% decrease in child care programs from the height of the pandemic to the second quarter of 2022, the highest decrease in the country.
“Maryland has pretty high labor force participation … for women, and at the same time, you don’t have enough child care supply. So, it becomes a real issue,” Landivar said.
In turn, the wages of the child care industry, which were already low to begin with according to Landivar, increased. In the first quarter of 2020, Maryland child care employees on average received a weekly wage of $563. That increased to $621 in the second quarter of 2022, according to the study.
Hawaii, Arizona, Alaska and the District of Columbia were also among the locations that were hit the hardest by the pandemic and had a slow recovery.
“In some counties, the family incomes are quite a bit lower. That doesn’t mean that the child care price declines by that same amount,” she said. “So if you have families that have lower income, it becomes unaffordable for them. It’s consuming a larger share of their income.”
Conversations about making child care more affordable to lower income families are taking place at a national level.
Just last month, the Biden administration passed an executive order that would increase access to child care by making HHS “consider issuing regulations to pursue policies to reduce child care costs for families” and encourage states to increase the use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds and spend more on cash assistance for families.
“It’s a known issue that child care is quite expensive for families throughout the country, but especially so for families that have lower income,” said Landivar.
On a statewide level, Maryland has scholarships in place that provide financial assistance with child care costs to families that are working and are recipients of Temporary Cash Assistance, Supplemental Security Income, or make a certain amount of money, through the Child Care Scholarship Program.