If New Mexico can figure out universal child care, so can New York City
By Yasser Salem
The problem isn’t theoretical, it’s real and urgent for the approximately 445,000 New York City families with children under five years old. Many of those families – 80% in fact, can’t afford child care in the city.
And it’s easy to see why. A 2024 study found that a family of four needs an annual income of $318,406 to live comfortably in New York City, but according to the U.S. Census Bureau the median household income in the city was just $79,713 in 2023. When you are coming up short by over $200,000 the idea of staying in the city becomes quickly untenable, especially when the cost of childcare accounts for so much of a family’s monthly budget.