Utah's childcare crisis: The increasing unaffordability and what's being done about it

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SALT LAKE CITY — The rising cost of living has made it so difficult for many Utah families to afford childcare that some have even called the current predicament a "crisis."

With economic tensions across the U.S. on the rise, many parents in Utah have said they're weighing the value of continuing employment at all when childcare eats up so much of the paycheck.

"Some parents have that choice, where they can stay home, but I'm also hearing just ... parents that do want to stay home don't have that option anymore just because of the economy," said Jennifer Stout, early education policy analyst with Voices for Utah Children.

Both parents work in at least 61% of Utah households, according to Stout, which she says proves a need for affordable childcare. She said the average Utah family spends about 12% of their income on childcare, and single parents spend about 32%, while the national recommendation is only 7%.

Utah's median household income is $95,166 a year, according to the latest data collected by the Department of Workforce Services in 2024.

Meanwhile, the median market rate for children under 2 at a commercial licensed daycare facility is $1,180 a month. That adds up to $14,160 a year for just one child.

Childcare is also not the only major expense families pay every month. According to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, the median price Utahns spend on housing is about $3,700 a month, or $45,000 a year. After childcare is factored in, especially for a home with multiple children, it leaves little left over for other crucial expenses.

Changes to childcare subsidy program

Childcare subsidies distributed by the state are also being reduced. More than 32,324 Utah households use state childcare assistance as of July 2026. However, Utah recently lost about $21 million in federal funding.

As a result, the state has tried to overcome the loss of federal funds by reducing the income eligibility limit to 50% of the state median income for new applicants and 65% for continued enrollment in the subsidy program. Previously, households could make 85% of the state median income and still receive financial assistance. About 900 families expect to lose their subsidies completely, and others may have their subsidies reduced.

"People are barely making it now. So the future — it's going to be disastrous. It could be a crisis," warned Linda Jo Sego, owner of Sunshine Academy.

Rep. Ashlee Matthews, D-West Jordan, who has been vocal on childcare issues in Utah, said those who will suffer most are the working-class families that are paycheck-to-paycheck but barely exceed the income threshold.

"You hear a lot of talk about the cliff that families are up against," Matthews said. "Something like a $0.25 raise at work would be enough to knock them out of those income and eligibility thresholds. Making an extra $0.25 an hour will actually cost them $800 or $1,000 a month in benefits and services."

Single parents, like Alyssa Sallee, do not believe they could afford childcare without help from the subsidy program.

"Childcare all the way around is very expensive. Without help, it's pretty much impossible to pay $1,200 or more for a month of childcare," Sallee said. "That's my rent."

Sego estimated about 80% of her daycare's families utilize the state's subsidy program. Sego predicted the loss of those funds will have major impacts on Utah's childcare industry.

"Having assistance from the state is almost essential anymore, especially when we have a lot of single-parent families, and the economy has changed so much," Sego said.

Sallee, Sego, and Matthews agreed this loss of subsidy dollars is likely to result in some parents leaving the workforce, which has larger implications for Utah employers and the economy.

"When a parent comes and says, 'I can't — I have to go, I don't have childcare,' what's that employer going to do?" Sego said.

Sego said she believes this will also lead to more people pulling their kids out of daycare in search of alternative options, which will throw Utah's childcare industry into a tailspin.

"I'm really afraid what's going to happen to the program, to private childcare, and to the working family," Sego said. "How are they going to find affordable daycare?"

A struggle for providers

The cost for parents can be extraordinary, but parents are not the only ones struggling.

"A lot of facilities and providers are having to make the choice to either pass that cost increase onto families, which are already struggling to afford childcare as it is, or they're having to absorb those. Neither one of those is ideal," Matthews said.

On top of the rising costs of living, childcare providers must now pay a minimum of $15 an hour to remain competitive and retain quality caretakers, according to Sego.

"Children need to have stable caregivers, and in order to have stable caregivers, we need to be paying higher wages," Stout explained. "We're seeing a lot of turnover within childcare centers because we're just not paying enough."

Utah also now offers full-day kindergarten at public schools. Sego said that the loss of many of their older kids means most of the families they serve now skew younger, and younger children are more costly to take care of because of caregiver-to-child ratios. Classrooms that serve children under 2 years old need to have one caregiver for every four children. The number of kids each caregiver can take on increases as they age — by the time children turn 5, that ratio sits at 20 kids for each teacher. Therefore, "taking care of school-aged children helps to offset the costs required to care for infants," from the provider perspective, Matthews said.

The increases have forced providers to re-strategize their methods of balancing costs to ensure their facilities aren't losing money.

"We still have to pay our rent. We still have utilities. We still have to pay our teachers," Sego said. "So we're going to have to balance it. We're going to have to lower what we charge, or they're going to have to meet us halfway. How are we going to afford this? It's going to be to the point where I'm just providing care and not receiving any money."

The intersection of affordability and availability

Availability also plays a factor in the costs of childcare. Stout said it's a matter of supply and demand; the more supply, the lower the prices. Cost and availability also have to do with location — urban areas do not seem to struggle with availability like rural areas do.

"We see in rural communities, prices go up even more because there are just not options," Stout said.

High-quality daycares that are highly coveted often charge more as well, not only because they require more money for operating costs, but also because of market demand. Sallee echoed Stout, saying it's "not easy finding ones that check all the boxes," but luckily she finally has an opening with a daycare she had been waitlisted for.

'Childcare is infrastructure'

Matthews believes lawmakers have a lot of work to do on Capitol Hill to support the childcare industry. Stout asserted that Utah leaders should look at what other states are doing to see if there are any applicable principles, like how New Mexico started offering universal childcare in 2025. However, that program is projected to cost well over $600 million annually.

Whether it be a program like this one, which gained little traction in Utah, or by a different method, Matthews said the state needs to invest more.

"We want to backfill the shortfall of funding that's not coming down from the federal government (subsidy program)," Matthews said. "It's going to require some substantial investment from the state to meet that shortfall, just to keep us at that level where we were before — just barely keeping our head above water."

She is working with other lawmakers on several childcare bills ahead of the 2027 legislative session.

"One thing that we've done in the past, and that I'm hoping we can build upon, is restructuring the way those benefits are divvied out to families," Matthews suggested. "Families are to gradually taper off, where the more they make, the less of a benefit they receive. So more families become eligible, but it's less of a shock to the system."

Stout expressed she would like to see as much of an investment in babies, toddlers and preschoolers as the state pours into school-aged children.

"In the state of Utah, we spend around $495 per pupil from ages zero to 5. And once a child hits 5, that number jumps to around $9,000 per pupil," Stout said. "A question that has come up for me a lot is: why do we all of a sudden decide that we can spend money when a child turns 5?"

Matthews said she wants Utahns to speak up and contact their legislators to talk about what they are experiencing. She is also open to hearing new ideas and solutions. When Utah lawmakers better understand the problem, they can become better equipped to find solutions.

This is especially important because this is not just a family problem or a provider problem — it is a problem that affects all of Utah, Matthews said.

"Childcare is infrastructure. It is the foundation that our entire economy is built upon," Matthews said. "It's not just parents that benefit from affordable, accessible childcare. It is employers and business owners. It is the childcare providers. Everybody relies on this system."

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