Child care in N.H. can be even more expensive than housing, food, and health care – The Boston Globe

CONCORD, N.H. — Some New Hampshire families are spending nearly one-third of their income on child care, according to a new analysis from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. 

Child care costs have gone up significantly in recent years, swelling 48 percent from 2013 to 2023 in New Hampshire, the analysis found. And there was an uptick in costs in the post-pandemic years, growing 12.5 percent from 2022 to 2023. 

Take, for instance, a family with one infant and a 4-year-old going to a day-care center. They are spending, on average, $33,257 per year on child care: $17,250 per year for the infant, and $16,007 for the toddler, according to the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.

With the median family in New Hampshire with children under 5 earning about $112,230, according to the analysis, that means about 29 percent of their income would have to go to child care alone.

In the course of a year, that would make child care the single biggest expense for many families, more than the cost of housing ($11,400 to $20,772), food ($12,456 to $13,068), and health care ($12,876 to $13,068), according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. 

“The prices are rapidly increasing,” said Tyrus Parker, a research scientist at the University of New Hampshire and co-author of the analysis. 

What is driving that? 

“I think the price increase is due to a mix of factors, although I’d be hard pressed to assign a share to any given factor,” said Jess Carson, director of the Center for Social Policy in Practice at UNH and co-author of the analysis. 

The increased cost of rent, utilities, food, and cleaning supplies also affects child-care providers, she said. Plus, there are workforce shortages that can drive up wages to recruit and retain staff, she said. If they don’t have enough staff, providers have to decrease their enrollment – but that doesn’t necessarily bring a proportional savings in operating costs, according to Carson. 

And, she said, now that pandemic-era aid has wound down, the only way providers can increase revenue is by increasing tuition. The economic impact can ripple out beyond the immediate families affected, taking parents who can’t afford child care out of the workforce. 

“Families have to make compromises based on their economic realities,” said Parker. 

“Maybe a family would like their child to be in care five days a week, but instead they have to opt for three days, and then one of the parents goes down to working part time just because the cost of child care is too high,” he said.

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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.