Child care costs in the U.S. have been rising in recent decades at nearly double the rate of inflation, according to a new report from auditing firm KPMG.
The KPMG report, published on Tuesday, showed that childcare costs rose 263 percent between 1990 and April this year. In the same period, the consumer price index, a parameter used to measure inflation, rose 133 percent.
“The child care crisis, which was simmering before the pandemic, has reached a fever pitch,” researchers say said in report.
“It really gets to the point where parents are really stuck right now — the biggest generation, I would say, of 30-somethings that we’ve ever seen,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. said in an interview with Marketplace.
“We have 12 thousand millennials turning 35 every day. And they’re in the middle of that, trying to pay for child care costs, which are – affordability, the government said you should pay maybe 7% of your income for child care costs,” Swonk added.
Women who have younger children also have a lower labor force participation rate compared to others, according to the KPMG study. to look for. Mothers with children under age 6 had a 69 percent work participation rate last year, compared with 95 percent for similar fathers.
Women with children between the ages of 6 and 17 had a work participation rate of 78 percent, while for men it was 92 percent.
The Consumer Price Index published in February showed that childcare costs rose 3 percent between December 2022 and December last year. Preschool and daycare costs increased by 4.5% during the same period.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
