Rising costs for childcare—up 5.2 percent year over year in September—have some parents leaving the workforce or cutting back on hours to take care of their children, a new report from the Bank of America (BofA) Institute found.
The report, published on Oct. 28, said childcare costs outpaced inflation by 1.5 percent in September. As a result, the year-over-year growth in households making childcare payments slowed, down 1.6 percentage points from September 2024.
BofA analyzed card payment data from across the country and found that payment amounts rose most in America’s heartland, surging by 8.2 percent in September versus the same month in 2024. Childcare payments in New England were up 6.6 percent….