New Yorkers Grapple with the High Cost of Child Care
Randi Rivera enjoys spending time with her son Wally in Park Slope. Randi is a new mom and native New Yorker who’s struggling to make ends meet with the high cost of child care in the city.
“If I’m going to pay someone to basically care for him and pay them pretty much what I make, then what am I doing? You know, it feels like, well, then I should probably be the one to just do it,” Randi says.
Randi is a freelance stage manager who has had to scale back the number of hours she takes on so that she can care for her son. Her partner works from home, but Randi says he isn’t able to put his full focus on both work and Wally at the same time.
State Surveys of child care providers found that nearly every type of child care in the city has gone up in price since. Right now day care can cost around $2000 a month.
“Yeah that’s exactly how I feel about it,” Randi says as her son Wally lets out a wail.
Costly child care is not just a New York problem. The Department of Labor says families spend up to 16.0% of their income on day care per child.
“Why is it that upper middle class, and above, people are the only people, you know, like it sometimes feels like they’re the only people allowed to have kids in New York,” Randi says.
According to the 5Boro People’s Pulse Survey, nearly half of New Yorkers have thought about leaving the city.
Edgar Alfonseca, director of data and strategy for NYC Housing Preservation and Development and parent to a two-year-old says he understands.
“I just don’t see people like me, working people like me having a sustainable future here, one where you have children without universal child care, free universal child care for everyone,” says Edgar.
The City provides early childhood education for some three-year-olds, but recent slashes in the budget means some parents are still left paying big bills for child care before their kids reach school age.
“Your ability to pay attention is coming alive in the first five years and the way that those skills develop really hinges on the interactions that you’re having with adults and caregivers around you,” says Anna Markowitz, a UCLA education professor.
Even though Randi has thought about leaving the city, she wants to raise Wally around her family and lifelong friends.
“Of course I’d love to raise a little New Yorker, but I don’t think I can give him the life I want him to have here,” Randi says.
Sharla Steinman is a bilingual journalist covering education in New York. She is originally from Los Angeles and a UCLA alum. She’s penned bylines in The New York Times and Uncloseted Media. You can reach out to her on X @Sharla_Steinman.