Economic Toll Due to Child Care Crisis
Research released by ReadyNation shows that the crisis costs the national economy $172 billion every year.
Date: February 11, 2026
The top-line message from a new report, “The Child Care Crisis Costs the U.S. Economy $172 Billion Each Year,” released by the business-leader organization ReadyNation, is that the lack of action by federal, state, and local policymakers has caused the economic impact of the child care crisis to escalate since 2018. The crisis now costs businesses, parents, and taxpayers $172 billion nationwide in lost productivity, earnings, and revenue every year. Worse, this problem will continue to grow unless policymakers address the fragile infrastructure of the child care sector.