Oregon’s Skyrocketing Infant Care Costs Force Parents to Choose Between Work and Family

Data released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, indicates that infant care in Oregon is the highest in the U.S., at 50% more than the cost of in-state tuition for a four-year public college. Childcare costs in Oregon ranked 10th nationally.

Oregon Infant Care Highest In U.S.

The data on the new application released by the Economic Policy Institute indicates that in 2024, the average cost of infant care in Oregon was about $1,589 a month, or  $19,064 a year, pushing the state to number 1 on the U.S. rankings for infant care costs.

The cost is unreachable for lower-income families even though many childcare workers come from their ranks. The data shows that 12% of childcare workers’ families nationally live in poverty.

Oregon is one of 38 states where infant care is more expensive than college. According to standards set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the EPI said that child care should cost no more than 7% of a family’s annual income to be affordable.

The report indicates that a minimum wage worker in Portland- where the local minimum wage is the highest in the state at $15.95 an hour, would take 30 weeks of full-time work to pay for a year of infant child care.

Middle-income families also struggle to cover the cost of infant care, having to spend 31% of their annual earnings to pay for care for an infant and a toddler. As a result, parents often choose to stay home with their young children. The saved cost is balanced against forfeited income and lost career growth opportunities.

Publicly funded child care is available in Oregon for a family of four with an income of up to $64,308 annually, representing 200% of the federal poverty level.

The average co-pay in the program is $9.56 per month. 16,143 families are enrolled in the child care assistance program, Employment Related Day Care (ERDC), but there is currently a waitlist of 9,700 families.