For a growing number of Southern California parents, the monthly child care bill has become the biggest line in the household budget, and some are using credit cards for other household expenses. One Irvine family pays $2,020 a month for full-time Montessori care, which is more than their rent. Others in Glendale and Whittier describe drained savings and five-figure card balances.
The squeeze shows up in the numbers, too. According to LAist, the median child care cost for parents paying for at least 20 hours of care rose from $1,100 in 2023 to $1,517 in 2025, a 38% increase. The same reporting says child care eats up nearly 20% of a median household income in Los Angeles County, and that LAist heard from dozens of Southern California families who went into debt or spent down savings to finance care.
LAist's review of Federal Reserve data found that families who used at least 20 hours of childcare paid a median of $1,517 per month.
Irvine Family Pays More for Care Than for Rent
Genny Richard works at a nonprofit, and her husband is a postdoctoral fellow. Their five-year-old son is in his third year at a full-time Montessori school in Irvine, a cost that exceeds their rent. Richard is also due with a baby next month.
The couple pay child care directly from their bank accounts, the report says, and then lean on credit cards for other costs. Medical bills and other expenses have contributed to the tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt they have accrued over several years, according to LAist's account of their finances.
Glendale Mom Drained Her Emergency Fund
Pamela Arciaga of Glendale is the sole earner in her household and works in early childhood advocacy. She has accrued about $20,000 in credit card debt because of her son's preschool costs. Her son attends preschool three days a week at about $1,000 a month, and her parents travel from Riverside to help on days he is not in school.
She has spent her emergency savings and is working to repay the debt, per the same report.
In Whittier, Daniel Contreras and his wife avoided cards but paid in other ways. They spent about $3,000 a month while both of their children were in full-time care, and they had to forgo savings. Their kids are now seven and ten and attend public school, though after-school care still runs the family $1,000 a month.
Prices Outrun Inflation While Providers Earn Little
Child care costs are up 6.6% since January 2025 and 31.3% since December 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by the Economic Security Project and cited by LAist. The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research likewise found California prices climbing at a much faster rate than overall inflation. Its brief put average 2023 costs at $11,900 a year for one child, roughly 11% of median income for households with young children.
Families are not pocketing the difference. Providers are among the lowest-paid professionals nationwide, and the workforce has been shrinking, LAist reports. The Stanford brief puts California early education turnover at 19% to 29%, against 3.2% across all industries, with wages lagging comparable peers by 23%.
Costs vary widely depending on where a family lives. Stanford's researchers found annual median costs ranging from $10,980 to $24,636 across California counties. A separate LAist report from March 2025 noted that infant and toddler care is the most expensive kind of child care.
Subsidies Are Growing, but Debt Is Hard to Measure
State and federal support to help families afford care has nearly tripled over the past decade, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. As of 2024–25, the state had added nearly 130,000 subsidized spaces toward a goal of more than 200,000. The institute also says the overall number of early care and education seats is now 6% higher than before the pandemic.
The California Department of Social Services says its subsidized programs provide vouchers for care in licensed centers, licensed family child care homes or license-exempt care.
How much consumer debt traces back to child care specifically is unclear. The evidence gathered here offers no comprehensive causal estimate, and LAist's reporting describes the difficulty of measuring child care-related debt and its effect on family finances. Chloe Gibbs of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, who studies the child care market, said consumer debt data do not show why families put expenses on credit cards. She also said families shift household spending and finance other costs to pay for care.
