UNH Today

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire recently released a finding most parents already know — child care is too expensive. The research, written by Marybeth Mattingly, Andrew Schaefer and Jessica Carson, says that one in four families with young children spend more than 10 percent of their family income on child care costs. A young child is considered 6 years old or younger. Researchers found that the average share of income spent on child care among families with young children is 8.8 percent. Nationwide, almost 27 percent of these families, or 1.4 million, spent more than 10 percent of their income on child care in the previous year. On average, poor families spend 20 percent of their income on child care.