Have you had trouble finding or paying for child care? You're not alone. In Alabama, parents are paying higher and higher percentages of their paychecks to find care, according to new data. See costs per county, and much more:
showed a surge in the amount of employed parents missing work for child care-related reasons.
In October 2022, 104,000 parents missed work nationally because of issues with caring for their children, which was the highest number the BLS has recorded. Numbers spiked in 2020 and have remained higher than before the pandemic. According to the Labor Department’s new database, the annual cost for center-based child care for toddler-aged kids as a percentage of family income ranged from 6.9% to 18.1% in Alabama.
The data also shows cost disparities between Black and white Alabama residents. Alabama counties with higher percentages of white residents reportedly spent a lower percentage of their total family income on child care in 2018.So far, no bills relating to child care have been pre-filed by lawmakers. The legislative session begins in March.
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