Kids & Family

DC Child Care Is Most Expensive In US, Study Shows

The District of Columbia topped the list of most expensive places for infant care in the United States, according to a new economic study.

The cost of child care in the District of Columbia is the highest in the nation, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The cost of child care in the District of Columbia is the highest in the nation, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (Shutterstock)

WASHINGTON, DC — D.C. is the most expensive place in the country for those seeking child care, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute. Those who have two kids requiring child care will spend more than half their household income on it in the District.

Parents in D.C. shell out a whopping $24,243 for infant care on average every year, based on the latest research from the institute. That breaks down to $2,020 each month, or the equivalent for some of a second mortgage payment.

Infant care is 321 percent more expensive than in-state tuition at a four-year public college in D.C., which is $5,756, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that analyzes workers and economic policies.

Find out what's happening in Washington DCwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

D.C. residents 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.

Find out what's happening in Washington DCwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

By those standards, infant care is only affordable for 7.9 percent of D.C. families.

Infant care for one child eats up 28.6 percent of a median family's income in D.C., according to the Economic Policy Institute.

While the average cost of care for an infant is more than $24,000 annually in D.C., care for a 4-year-old is $19,112, or $1,593 per month, according to the institute's calculations.

That means child care for an infant and a 4-year-old would require 51.1 percent of household income, costing $43,355.

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 D.C. $17,724.

There is a child care subsidy program in D.C.that is federally funded and based in part on income, with a sliding scale co-payment.

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.

— By Patch editors Feroze Dhanoa and Elizabeth Janney


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here