WASHINGTON (AP) – Three years ago, Jason Prosser was stunned to discover the cost of child care for his newborn son – so much so that he and his wife postponed having a second child.
The day care center they found near their Seattle home tops $10,000 a year. Next year, their son, now 3, can attend a Catholic preschool less than half as costly.
“It’ll be nice to have enough relief next year,” Prosser said. “It’s just funny that the relief will be a private school.”
He and his wife are among legions of middle-class families who are straining under the weight of accelerating costs for a range of essential services from day care to health care. And now a study by the Center for American Progress shows just how heavy the burden has grown: For a typical married couple with two children, the combined cost of child care, housing, health care and savings for college and retirement jumped 32 percent from 2000 to 2012 – and that’s after adjusting for inflation.
Compounding the pain is that average pay for Americans is barely topping inflation.