Think college is expensive? Try sending your kid to full-time day care or preschool. In nearly half the country, it’s now more expensive to educate a 4-year-old in preschool than an 18-year-old in college, a finding that illustrates the rising burden many families face affording care for children. The annual cost of care for a 4-year old at a full-time day-care center or school is greater than the average cost of in-state tuition at a four-year institution in 23 states, according to new data from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. In Massachusetts, the state with the highest child-care costs, care for a preschooler is $12,781 annually or almost 20% more than an undergrad’s average tuition of $10,702. Care for a 4-year old is 73% more expensive than college in Florida, the state with the largest disparity. Florida has among the country’s lowest college tuition costs but average child-care costs of $7,668 a year. “High-quality child care is out of reach for many families,” said EPI research assistant Tanyell Cooke. “This crisis is not limited to low-income families, nor is it unique to certain parts of the country. It affects everyone, in every state.”
Wall Street Journal
April 12, 2016
The U.S. is the only nation in the developed world that doesn’t mandate maternity leave with pay. Childcare costs for families with two children exceeds that of rent in 500 of 618 metro areas in the country, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a resource group that advocates for workers.
Bloomberg
April 12, 2016
A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank created to give low-income a voice in policy, examined the costs of childcare versus college and found that the in-state public college tuition in 23 states was lower than the cost of full time childcare for a 4-year-old.
Time
April 12, 2016
Day care is expensive. In fact, educating your preschooler may be pricier than sending your teenager to college. “In nearly half the country, it’s now more expensive to educate a 4-year-old in preschool than an 18-year-old in college,” Eric Morath at the Wall Street Journal reports. The cost of child care outpaces the cost of a four-year college education in 23 states. The data comes from a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Business Insider
April 12, 2016
A new report by the Economic Policy Institute found that a national investment that caps families’ child care expenditures at 10 percent of their income could help more parents join and stay in the workforce, boosting national GDP by about $210 billion and putting $3.18 billion into the Missouri economy each year.
St. Louis Post Dispatch
April 12, 2016
Sure enough, some 17 percent of women over 65 live in poverty, compared with 12 percent of men, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
April 12, 2016
With just $90 billion a year, Congress could set up a national network of high-quality early-education programs open to all families, according to a recent analysis from economist Josh Bivens and his colleagues at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Their goal is to allow every family in the country to provide preschool and child care for infants and toddlers 4 and younger for no more than 10 percent of their incomes. The federal government would pick up the rest of the tab. The plan also calls for a staff of nurses to coach pregnant mothers and families with infants on child rearing. Bivens, it’s worth noting, says the plan would pay for itself over the long term, and that the government wouldn’t need a windfall from money squirreled away in the Caribbean to make it happen. “The kids who grow up 10 to 20 years from now would be more likely to earn higher wages and avoid contact with the criminal justice system,” he recently told Wonkblog.
The Washington Post
April 11, 2016
David Cooper and James Sherk talked about how increases in the minimum wage at state and local levels would affect local economies and businesses and the effect on workers’ standards of living or increasing unemployment.
C-SPAN
April 11, 2016
How much you make is a topic few people like to reveal. It’s considered impolite in many circles and it’s also fairly subjective, depending on your position and skill level, as well as gender, age and race, among other factors. “There’s a lot of arbitrariness and judgment that goes into what people are paid, and that’s to the disadvantage of women and minorities,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
April 11, 2016
A number of states and localities have been moving up minimum wages in the absence of an increase in the federal floor, which stands at $7.25. Last year, 11 states and the District of Columbia lifted their minimum wages through legislation, and 11 states increased them via regular indexing to inflation, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington DC think-tank.
A move in the federal minimum to $12 an hour would restore it to about its 1968 level relative to the earnings of a typical worker, said David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute. That was the historical high point of the federal minimum wage. An increase to $15 would take the US beyond its previous experience with the national minimum, raising the wages of the bottom 40 per cent of workers.
Financial Times
April 11, 2016