Childcare costs are crushing families. The national average price of child care in 2025 was $13,184 a year, and prices rose 23% from 2021 to 2025.[1]
The people doing the work aren't getting rich from it either. The median child care worker earned $34,980 a year in 2025, or $16.82 an hour.[2] Parents pay too much and workers still earn too little.
Cap child care at 7% of income
The Congressional Progressive Caucus has proposed that no family pay more than 7% of its income for child care, which it says means under $10 a day for most families.[3] Under our plan, families pay their share, and federal money covers the rest, including better pay for the people who care for our kids.
It may pay for much of itself. A July 2026 study of Quebec's universal child care program found a lasting boost in mothers' employment, long after their kids aged out of preschool. The authors estimate the added taxes and earnings could recover 75% to 117% of the program's upfront cost.[4]
Paid family and medical leave for everyone
When you have a baby, get sick or need to care for a dying parent, you shouldn't have to choose between that and your paycheck. Today about half of private-sector workers, 49%, have access to paid family and medical leave.[5] The other half are on their own.
The U.S. is the only member of the OECD, the club of mostly wealthy democracies, that doesn't provide paid leave to new mothers working in the private sector.[6] Twelve states and D.C. have stepped in and run their own paid leave programs, from California to New York.[6] Workers in the other states deserve the same.
The objection: "It's too expensive, and it'll hurt small business"
It costs money. But the evidence from places that already do this is better than the warnings. In a 2010 survey of about 250 California employers, roughly 90% said the state's paid family leave law had a positive effect or no effect on their productivity, profits, morale and costs, and small businesses reported fewer problems than big ones.[7] One study does find that paid parental leave laws reduced employment at some businesses in states that passed them,[8] so our plan pays for leave through a shared public insurance fund instead of putting the cost on any one employer.
Sources
- Child Care Aware of America, "Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply," May 2026. https://info.childcareaware.org/price-and-supply-2025
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Childcare Workers." https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/childcare-workers.htm
- Congressional Progressive Caucus, "Progressive Caucus Announces New Affordability Agenda," April 29, 2026. https://progressives.house.gov/2026/4/progressive-caucus-announces-new-affordability-agenda
- Michael Baker, Jonathan Gruber and Kevin Milligan, NBER Working Paper 35514, July 2026. https://www.nber.org/papers/w35514
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2026," September 25, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.nr0.htm
- Congressional Research Service, "Paid Family and Medical Leave in the United States" (R44835), September 30, 2026. https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/2026-09-30_R44835_c6631a7e579eb92974eef0e856079b3f57f22df5.html
- U.S. Department of Labor, summary of Appelbaum and Milkman's study of California's paid family leave law. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasp/evaluation/WorkerLeaveStudy/WL-California-Paid-Family-Leave-Law
- Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Working Paper 2024-12, May 2024. https://chicagofed.org/publications/working-papers/2024/2024-12