‘Childcare costs make work pointless!’ Cash-strapped parents rage about spending half their wages on childcare, while weekly nanny prices rise 4% to $766 and millions plunder their savings

More Americans are turning to social media to rant about the rising costs of child care, which researchers say now eats up a quarter of parents’ incomes and leaves millions of people plundering on rainy days.

Across the U.S., parents complain that nannies and child care now cost more than rent, mortgage payments or college tuition. A Massachusetts mother says this is “one of the reasons people don’t have children anymore.”

This week Care.com has its annual report on the industry with a turnover of $340 billion per year.

It found that 24 percent of parents spend a quarter of their household income on child care, while almost half spent more than $18,000 last year.

Florida real estate agent Freddie Smith was ‘blown away’ by childcare costs in Orlando.

The group’s chief executive Brad Wilson said parents of children under the age of five were being “forced into a financial hole that is almost impossible to climb out of”.

This is a “major red flag” in an election year.

The child care crisis has been so bad that 88 percent of parents say federal government support could affect how they vote in this year’s presidential election — which will be a showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

“A healthy economy depends on people’s ability to save and spend, but given the crushing weight of child care costs, these pillars are crumbling,” Wilson added.

“It is a systemic failure that will impact our country’s economic growth.”

Wilson’s fears are confirmed by the TikTok videos posted by cash-strapped parents in the US.

Among them is Paige Turner, a mother of four from Massachusetts who combines parenthood with working from home.

Paige Turner, a mother of four from Massachusetts, is sounding the alarm about the child care crisis

Friends have been forced to “leave the workforce” because the $28,000-a-year cost of childcare “competes with the cost of college tuition,” Turner says.

“The lack of childcare is leading to drastic changes in the way people view family planning,” she added.

“This posed big questions about ‘what our economy and our country will look like in 10, 20, 30 years, when many millennials are choosing not to have children because they can’t afford them.’

Meanwhile, Freddie Smith, a real estate agent in Orlando, Florida, described how his jaw dropped when friends told him they were spending $2,200 every month on childcare.

“I was blown away,” he said.

He talked about a friend who made $65,000 a year but only had $18,000 left after babysitting wages, taxes and gas.

According to Care.com’s research, Massachusetts is the most expensive state to hire a nanny at $899 per week.

Parents in the US are going on a rampage on TikTok about the eye-watering cost of a babysitter

Getting a place for a child in a daycare center can involve a long waiting list

It is followed by Washington DC, California, Washington State and Connecticut.

Mississippians pay the least for nannies: $577 per week.

Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana and West Virginia round out the cheapest five states.

Babysitting costs rose 4 percent last year, while childcare prices rose 13 percent to a national average of $321 per week.

Costs rose as pandemic-related federal childcare subsidies expired in September 2023, forcing some daycares to close.

As a result, parents have started spending more and have been forced to dip into their savings, according to the group’s survey of 2,000 mothers and fathers.

More than a third of parents raided their savings accounts, burning an average of 42 percent of their money on rainy days.

Vice President Kamala Harris announced plans last year to lower child care costs for American families with a proposal to cap co-payments under a block grant program.