8 To understand better the cost burden on families and the types of arrangements that parents make to manage financially, this issue brief examines recent data on child care payments and patterns that provide insight into the types of child care that families use. In reality, most young children have working parents, making child care integral to family life. child care worker earns just $11 per hour. 6 Meanwhile, to the extent that child care is affordable for parents at all, this is only because the child care workforce effectively subsidizes child care costs with low worker wages. Even low-income families-whose children likely qualify for child care assistance-are often forced to pay for child care, since fewer than 1 in 6 subsidy-eligible children receives assistance. Under the current policies, most parents must cover the full cost of child care on their own, an expense that few can afford. 4 During this same time, income inequality has escalated, with wealth and incomes for the top 1 percent and the upper middle class pulling away from the rest of Americans. Over the past two decades, middle-class wages have barely kept pace with the rate of inflation, while the costs of securing a family in the middle class-including the necessary costs of housing, education, health care, and child care-have risen considerably.
3įor those who do have young children, parenthood in the United States can feel like a relentless series of financial challenges. fertility rate fell to a record low for the third straight year, falling below the replacement rate needed to keep the population constant from one generation to the next. 1 Absent large-scale policy action on this issue, young adults have reported child care expenses as the top reason they are having fewer children than they would like. Quality, affordable child care allows parents who want to work to stay in the labor force, encourages the healthy development of young children, and supports families at a stage in their lives during which small investments return large social dividends. (Workers' Households) Statistical Tables(released in the past) Including agricultural, forestry and fisheries households Note:Release of "Index of Consumption Expenditure Level" ended with the result of December 2018.Īfter January 2019, please visit "Consumption Trend Index (Adjusted by the Distribution of Household by Number of Household Members and Age Group of Household Head, Two-or-more-person households,workers' households)".American families are struggling with the costs of child care-a key element in the ever-rising expenses associated with middle-class opportunity. Seasonally Adjusted Series of Key Items(Excel:145KB) Seasonally Adjusted Series of Key Items(Excel:51KB) Table 2 Average of Monthly Receipts and Disbursements per Household (Excel:99KB) Table 1 Major Figures on Family Budget (Excel:70KB) Note:"Change from the previous month in %" of January 2018 and January 2019 in Seasonally Adjusted Series of Key Items are "discontinuity-adjusted figures", which are calculated to remove gaps influenced by the revision of account books. The average of monthly income per household stood at 497,383 yen, up 0.3% in nominal terms but down 2.1% in real terms from the previous year. (2) Income and Expenditures for Workers' Households The average of monthly consumption expenditures per household for January 2024 was 289,467 yen, down 4.0% in nominal terms and down 6.3% in real terms from the previous year.
(1) Expenditures for Two-or-more-person Households Released on 8 March 2024 Summary of Survey Results Main contents start here Summary of the Latest Month on Family Income and Expenditure Survey January 2024