The problem isn’t theoretical, it’s real and urgent for the approximately 445,000 New York City families with children under five years old. Many of those families – 80% in fact, can’t afford child care in the city.
And it’s easy to see why. A 2024 study found that a family of four needs an annual income of $318,406 to live comfortably in New York City, but according to the U.S. Census Bureau the median household income in the city was just $79,713 in 2023. When you are coming up short by over $200,000 the idea of staying in the city becomes quickly untenable, especially when the cost of childcare accounts for so much of a family’s monthly budget.
For childcare to be considered affordable according to national guidelines it needs to account for no more than 7% of a family’s budget. But with the average cost of daycare for infants and toddlers in the city clocking in between $18,000 and $26,000 a year, child care for one kid alone would eat up over 20% of the average family’s income.
