It’s no secret that childcare is incredibly expensive in this country. Often, prohibitively so, when it comes to a mother deciding whether to return to work after having a baby.

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Some new statistics released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) highlight just how difficult it is for a family to afford childcare, often resulting in women becoming stay-at-home moms as a default. If daycare is so expensive that it’s cheaper for a parent to stop working, it’s obvious that this is a problem that needs solutions.

According to the EPI’s findings, the below factors make good-quality childcare merely a pipe dream for thousands of families:

  • In 33 states and the District of Columbia, infant care costs exceed the average cost of in-state college tuition at public 4-year institutions.
  • Among families with two children (a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old), child care costs exceed rent in 500 out of 618 family budget areas. For two-child families, child care costs range from about half as much as rent in San Francisco to nearly three times rent in Binghamton, New York.
  • As a share of total family budgets, center-based child care for single-parent families with two children (ages 4 and 8) ranges from 11.7 percent in New Orleans to 33.7 percent in Buffalo, New York.
  • Read more http://www.scarymommy.com/when-daycare-costs-more-than-rent-no-wonder-some-moms-never-return-to-work/