$19,961 a year for child care? No wonder parents are struggling. — Boston Globe
By The Editorial Board
Even for middle-income families, affording child care in Massachusetts is a stretch. In 2023, care for a toddler cost an average of $19,961 annually at a child-care center in Massachusetts, almost twice the national average, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Price tags like that add to what is already a high cost of living, which is driving residents and businesses out of the Commonwealth. It’s also a burden on employers when their workers can’t return to the workforce after having a child. Easing the financial burden of child care is, rightly, a state priority.
Cutting child-care costs is difficult, though, because the biggest expense is staff, who are poorly paid as it is, with an average wage of $18.30 an hour. The other way to reduce the financial burden for parents, and allow more of them to return to the workforce sooner, is by providing state subsidies.
Massachusetts has such a system for low-income families, but demand far outstrips supply. The income cutoff, which varies by family size, is $66,228 a year for a family of three. According to the Department of Early Education and Care, there were 30,773 children on a waiting list for child-care financial assistance in January 2025, up from 21,004 in July 2023. State officials expect the demand for assistance to keep growing…
[O]ver the long term the state should identify its own revenue sources for early education, while in the short term making sure existing funding is well-spent. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts officials have made real efforts to increase the amount of money going into early education. But too many children are still denied access to care, leaving too many parents out of the workforce — and depriving too many kids of the educational benefits of a strong start.