The costs of child care vary depending on the region of the country. In Mississippi, center-based infant care costs $468 a month, but in Washington D.C., it’s $1,868. For single-parent families with two children, center-based child care consumed 11.7% of family budgets in New Orleans, but 33.7% in Buffalo, New York. “How are young parents supposed to be able to afford the equivalent of a college tuition?” said EPI's Elise Gould. “This is out of reach for many [higher-income] families.”
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