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I live in Massachusetts.. mentioned in the article as averaging $16k. I have a child who stopped going to private day care a year and a half ago. For us it wa

I live in Massachusetts.. mentioned in the article as averaging $16k. I have a child who stopped going to private day care a year and a half ago. For us it was more like $20-24k/yr for child care. There were centers near one of my workplaces that were more like $35-40k/yr/child. Anything near the trendy high tech office spaces in Boston/Cambridge is going to be in that > $30k/yr/child range. I think there are nice profits being made because: - The teachers/caretakers make 50% at best of what public school teachers make - They just in time schedule the living daylights out of everything - You can easily figure out the gross income of the "school" because the tuition figures are public and you can see the # of rooms in the school and calculate from regulation how many kids are there. They were always 95% full in my experience - The expensive/fancy ones tend to be owned by big chains & franchises, those are not operations that exist without someone getting rich. One of the biggest day care chains in the country is owned by Bain Capital.. they've made a lot of money on it. They don't get into stuff that isn't profitable. My experience was even at the upper end of the market the product is pretty darn bad compared to public school systems in our area. The public school staff is amazing and incredibly professional compared to the private day care staff. Not even close. And the ratios for elementary school are better than pre-school/pre-K at expensive day cares in our area. And even if you took all our local & state taxes and gave 100% to the school it does not match what day care costs. And obviously the state & town do not give 100% of the money to the school system.

yanslookup 7y ago
For another data point, my wife and I live in Cambridge, MA we just hired a nanny for our 6 month old son at a rate of 23/hr for 30 hours per week (~35k/yr)... This was competitive with nearby day care center rates.
- ben7799 7y ago
  Yes I was referring to Kendall Sq. day cares when thinking of $36-40k/yr. I worked there when my child was born.
  - DrAwdeOccarim 7y ago
    We had our kid in the infant class at a chain daycare in Central, $3400/mo. His older sibling was $2900/mo. And the care wasn't even that great...We moved them to a daycare closer to our house, a little further out. The costs went down 25% and the quality went up dramatically. It's really amazing how hit or miss the quality of the day care options are in the area, and how obscenely expensive it all is. But it's an easy equation for them--you simply look at the after-tax income of a biopharm mid-career professional and you make it cost that. The families are willing to pay that amount of money for 3-4 years because leaving a parent out of the workforce causes a loss of career trajectory and a subsequent loss of future income. Basically you sacrifice a few years of current earning to not lose out on the time in role.
- defen 7y ago
  > 23/hr for 30 hours per week (~35k/yr) Don't forget about the "nanny tax" (Household employer tax). You might not have to pay it this year if you're under the threshold but you probably will next year: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nanny-tax.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nanny-tax.asp
gwbas1c 7y ago
I live in MA, and I've used in-home daycare. My current provider is a husband and wife team, and they aren't getting rich. (They charge $50 / day.) Previously, I used an in-home provider where she ran a smaller in-home daycare, and her husband had an engineering job. They (household) had more money than my wife and I did. Ironically, even though she charged $55 a day, because she provided all food, it was "cheaper" due to time saved on our end.
- pnutjam 7y ago
  I'm currently in Indiana (ugh), but had my oldest daughter in Michigan. Michigan in 2000, seemed to have some subsidies that essentially set the price for daycare. I believe in home was $45 / day. Indiana has no such subsidies and costs can vary hugely. I've seen anywhere from $25 /day to $70 /day.

yanslookup 7y ago

For another data point, my wife and I live in Cambridge, MA we just hired a nanny for our 6 month old son at a rate of 23/hr for 30 hours per week (~35k/yr)... This was competitive with nearby day care center rates.

ben7799 7y ago
Yes I was referring to Kendall Sq. day cares when thinking of $36-40k/yr. I worked there when my child was born.
- DrAwdeOccarim 7y ago
  We had our kid in the infant class at a chain daycare in Central, $3400/mo. His older sibling was $2900/mo. And the care wasn't even that great...We moved them to a daycare closer to our house, a little further out. The costs went down 25% and the quality went up dramatically. It's really amazing how hit or miss the quality of the day care options are in the area, and how obscenely expensive it all is. But it's an easy equation for them--you simply look at the after-tax income of a biopharm mid-career professional and you make it cost that. The families are willing to pay that amount of money for 3-4 years because leaving a parent out of the workforce causes a loss of career trajectory and a subsequent loss of future income. Basically you sacrifice a few years of current earning to not lose out on the time in role.
defen 7y ago
> 23/hr for 30 hours per week (~35k/yr) Don't forget about the "nanny tax" (Household employer tax). You might not have to pay it this year if you're under the threshold but you probably will next year: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nanny-tax.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nanny-tax.asp

gwbas1c 7y ago

I live in MA, and I've used in-home daycare. My current provider is a husband and wife team, and they aren't getting rich. (They charge $50 / day.) Previously, I used an in-home provider where she ran a smaller in-home daycare, and her husband had an engineering job. They (household) had more money than my wife and I did. Ironically, even though she charged $55 a day, because she provided all food, it was "cheaper" due to time saved on our end.

pnutjam 7y ago
I'm currently in Indiana (ugh), but had my oldest daughter in Michigan. Michigan in 2000, seemed to have some subsidies that essentially set the price for daycare. I believe in home was $45 / day. Indiana has no such subsidies and costs can vary hugely. I've seen anywhere from $25 /day to $70 /day.