By Brooke Williams | KDVR Fox31
DENVER (KDVR) — Amid a rising cost of living, caring for a child is expensive anywhere in the U.S., but especially in Colorado, according to a new report.
Personal finance website WalletHub conducted a study on all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Researchers analyzed the prices of family-based and center-based child care and made adjustments based on median income to rank the states with the highest and lowest costs of child care for both couples and single parents.
The study found that in some parts of the country, couples could spend up to 13% of their income on child care, and a single parent could spend 51%. The report notes that both parents are employed in more than two-thirds of families with children, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Colorado’s costs are better, but the state still ranked among those with the highest costs as the ninth highest for coupled parents and 15th for single parents.
According to the report, married couples in Colorado pay 8.87% of the median annual family income on family-based child care, and 11.77% on center-based child care. Family-based child care costs the most for couples in New Mexico at 11.61% of their median income, and center-based child care costs the most for couples in Hawaii at 13.46%.
The cost disparities between family and center-based child care options were larger for single parents. According to the report, the family-based child care costs 27.25% of a single parent’s annual income, while center-based child care costs 36.14%.
Colorado’s cost of family-based child care for single parents ranked in the more affordable half of the list at No. 35 out of 51, while the state’s cost for center-based child care ranked at No. 15.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT KDVR FOX31