How affordable is childcare in YOUR state? Fascinating study reveals how parents in some regions fork out almost 20% of their income on daycare

Parents across America are in the same situation: the high cost of child care makes it virtually impossible for many to afford it.

According to the Department of Health’s definition, child care is not “affordable” in any of the 50 states, but some areas face higher costs than others.

New Mexico has the least affordable child care in the country, new data shows GOBanking Rates shows.

The report shows that families there have to spend more than 15 percent of their income on childcare. This is nearly double the amount families spend in the most affordable states.

In South Dakota, the cheapest state, families typically spend 9 percent of their wages on child care.

GOBankingRates named New Mexico, California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Nevada and Michigan as the ten least affordable states for child care in the country

The survey exposes a difficult reality for many Americans, with child care costs in many cases being the largest annual expense for families.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines “affordable” as 7 percent of a person’s income. Based on those criteria, no state offers affordable child care to its residents.

Mother-of-four Paige Turner previously told DailyMail.com how she and her husband spent a whopping $60,000 on childcare costs in a year, which was more than double their mortgage payments.

The family lives in Massachusetts, one of the ten least affordable states in the US, according to the latest data from GOBankingRates.

To provide a sense of how much parents in each state can expect to pay, the personal finance website analyzed the most recent publicly available data from ChildCare Aware’s Child Care Data Center and the US Census.

It looked at the cost of center and home childcare during the first four years of a child’s life, and how much each family spends on childcare relative to its income.

Each state was ranked based on the overall affordability of each of these factors.

It named New Mexico, California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Nevada and Michigan as the ten least affordable states for child care in the country.

In New Mexico, child care typically costs $9,243 per child per year, while family day care costs an average of $8,101.

Massachusetts was the state with the highest cost for center child care, at $20,045 per year.

On average, families in the state spend 17.25 percent of their income on caring for their children.

In New York, meanwhile, the average household spends 16.36 percent of its income, and in Washington 15.85 percent of its income.

One reason for rising childcare costs across the country is an increase in demand – coupled with a shortage of workers in the sector.

Mother of three and licensed attorney Crystal Gamach, who lives in Washington, told DailyMail.com last year how she couldn’t find anywhere to take her children when she sought part-time care in Spokane.

Mother of three and licensed attorney Crystal Gamache, pictured, couldn’t find anywhere to take her children part-time in Spokane, Washington

She said she relied on the help of babysitters in the past, but ended up effectively having to pay to go to work because childcare costs exceeded her wages.

Crystal now works as a professor at a local university where she teaches law, specializing in rights and policies relating to children. The family is supported by her husband, who works in private equity in real estate.

She told DailyMail.com: ‘Women training to be doctors and lawyers often meet their husbands during their studies and they end up in the same high tax brackets.

‘It means that these women can afford not to work and to drop out of the workplace. But this is how we lose our most brilliant female employees.”