We have two children and up until this year, they were both in a day care facility. We were paying $1,600 a month and that was with a discount for families with more than one child there. My husband and I make what I consider relatively good salaries, but without that discount we would never be able to pay for it. We wanted to move to the suburbs but the cost of our day care would have increased $1,000 a month. And then there's the cost of commuting to DC on top of that. It's a huge economic endeavor.
In Massachusetts, the cost of child care for a two-parent, middle-class family averages 16% of their annual income. In Mississippi, costs average 7.3%. See how your state ranks.
