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article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
FUYANG, CHINA – JANUARY 30, 2026 – US dollar banknotes captured in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, China on January 30, 2026. (Photo credit should read CFOTO\/Future Publishing via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
PENNSYLVANIA – Working parents need childcare, but as costs skyrocket across the United States, the options are becoming even more limited.<\/p>\n
By the numbers:<\/p>\n
A recent study<\/a> states that the average annual cost of childcare for an infant and a 4-year-old in the U.S. is currently $28,190.<\/p>\n Childcare is considered affordable when a household spends only 7% of its income, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n In order to meet both standards, a household needs to earn an average of $403,708 a year \u2014 which is 176.5% higher than the average income of a family with two kids.<\/p>\n Local perspective:<\/p>\n That gap becomes even wider when costs are broken down by state, with Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware ranking above the national average.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania was named the 28th highest with a 177.1% difference:<\/p>\n Average childcare costs for an infant and 4-year-old: $27,363Income needed to comfortably afford childcare: $390,900Average income for households with two kids: $141,060 <\/p>\n New Jersey’s difference was slightly higher at 180.4%, making it the 24th highest:<\/p>\n Average childcare costs for an infant and 4-year-old: $37,716Income needed to comfortably afford childcare: $538,800Average income for households with two kids: $192,156 <\/p>\n Delaware ranked even closer to the top, landing 16th on the list with a 214.3% difference:<\/p>\n Average childcare costs for an infant and 4-year-old: $29,835Income needed to comfortably afford childcare: $426,214Average income for households with two kids: $135,610 <\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware’s numbers aren’t even the highest!<\/p>\n Hawaii households need to earn 269.7% more than the average income to afford childcare, followed closely by Nebraska at 263% and Montana at 257.8%.<\/p>\n Families in South Dakota come the closest to affording child care, but still need 95.4% more than the state’s average income.<\/p>\n Tips to afford childcare <\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n Experts say families have several tools and strategies they can use to help make childcare more affordable:<\/p>\n Ask your employer about childcare-related benefitsResearch federal, state and local assistance programs, such as universal pre-K and the Child and Dependent Care Tax CreditCompare alternative care, like nanny shares, co-ops and part-time preschool slotsAdjust schedules to reduce total hours in careAsk about payment flexibility, sibling discounts or sliding-scale fees <\/p>\n The Source: Information for this article was provided by LendingTree.<\/p>\n Money<\/a>Pennsylvania<\/a>New Jersey<\/a>Delaware<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FUYANG, CHINA – JANUARY 30, 2026 – US dollar banknotes captured in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, China…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30284,83,139,1962,539,28,30,29,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-104986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-de","9":"tag-money","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nj","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","15":"tag-pennsylvania-news","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}