Households With Two Children Must Earn $402,708 To Comfortably Afford Child Care

With average annual costs for the care of an infant and a 4-year-old reaching $28,190, a family would need to earn $402,708 per year to stay within the federal benchmark of 7%, according to recent analysis by LendingTree. However, typical two-child households earn just $145,656, leaving the average family 176.5% below the affordability threshold. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defines “affordable child care” as consuming no more than 7% of a household's income.

The data was compiled using U.S. Census Bureau 2023 American Community Survey data . . .