In-home child care costs run roughly $760 to $870 per week for a full-time nanny in your home, and about $323 per week for a family child care home where a provider watches a small group of children in their own residence.1Care.com. How Much Does Child Care Cost2Nanny Lane. Child Care Cost What you actually pay depends heavily on where you live, your child’s age, the caregiver’s experience, and how many hours you need each week.
Current Price Ranges
The two main forms of in-home care carry very different price tags.
A full-time nanny working 40 hours a week averages $870 per week nationally, based on Care.com’s 2026 survey of 3,000 parents.1Care.com. How Much Does Child Care Cost Nanny Lane, which aggregates posted job listings, puts the figure a bit lower: $18.99 an hour, $760 a week, and roughly $39,500 a year.2Nanny Lane. Child Care Cost Either way, expect an annual bill in the mid-$30,000s to low $40,000s for a private nanny.
A family child care home is far cheaper: about $323 per week on average, with daycare overall (home-based and center-based combined) averaging $332 per week.1Care.com. How Much Does Child Care Cost Child Care Aware of America’s 2025 report puts the national average annual price of child care at $13,184.3Child Care Aware of America. Child Care in America: 2025 Price and Supply
What Changes the Price
Child’s age. Infant care costs about 61 percent more than preschool-age care because state rules require lower adult-to-child ratios for babies.4Center for American Progress. Understanding the True Cost of Child Care for Infants and Toddlers In San Francisco, family child care homes charge roughly $1,732 per month for children ages 0–2 and $1,700 for ages 2–5.5Children’s Council. Child Care Costs
Caregiver experience. Entry-level nannies with zero to two years of experience average $17.96 per hour. Nannies with six to ten years average $21.66.2Nanny Lane. Child Care Cost
Number of children. Each additional child typically adds $1 to $2 per hour to a nanny’s rate.2Nanny Lane. Child Care Cost
Schedule. Full-time nannies (35–50 hours a week) average $20.15 per hour; part-time (10–25 hours) averages $18.79. Evenings and weekends carry a 10 to 20 percent premium, and last-minute bookings can add $3 to $5 per hour.2Nanny Lane. Child Care Cost
How Much Location Matters
Where you live may be the single biggest cost variable. The Economic Policy Institute found monthly infant care costs ranging from $572 in Mississippi to $2,363 in Washington, D.C., a more than fourfold spread.6Economic Policy Institute. Updated Resource Calculates the Cost of Child Care in Every State In New York City, home-based child care runs about $16,250 a year for children ages 0–2 and $14,300 for ages 3–5.7Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. Childcare Costs 2025: Which States Are Most Expensive for Parents In California, median annual costs for full-time licensed infant care in family child care homes ranged from $9,900 to $21,200 by county in 2022.8Kidsdata.org. Child Care Cost
As a share of income, formal child care averages about 10 percent of median dual-income earnings and 35 percent for single parents nationally.9Bipartisan Policy Center. State Child Care Data 2025 Update In Washington, D.C., family-based care consumes an estimated 44.6 percent of median single-parent income; center-based care takes 51.2 percent.7Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. Childcare Costs 2025: Which States Are Most Expensive for Parents The federal benchmark for “affordable” care is 7 percent of family income, and no state meets it for center-based infant or toddler care.4Center for American Progress. Understanding the True Cost of Child Care for Infants and Toddlers
Nanny in Your Home vs. Family Child Care Home
The trade-off is money against control. A nanny works one-on-one with your child on your schedule in your home, but you pay the full freight of a single employee’s wages. A family child care home spreads a provider’s cost across several families, so your share is far smaller, but you send your child to someone else’s house on their schedule with other kids in the mix.
Family child care homes typically offer smaller group sizes than centers, a more intimate setting, and mixed-age groupings. Licensing standards vary by state, and some home-based programs operate with lighter oversight than centers, which face mandated health and safety protocols, standardized hiring rules, and regular inspections. Waitlists are common in both settings, especially in areas with a child care supply shortage.10Care.com. Child Day Care
Ways to Lower the Bill
Nanny Shares
Two or three families can split one nanny. The nanny typically charges about 1.3 times the solo rate, and that combined figure is divided among the families, cutting each family’s cost by roughly 30 to 40 percent compared to hiring privately. One Chicago example: a solo $20-per-hour rate becomes $26 per hour in a two-family share, working out to about $27,040 per family annually instead of $41,600.11Poppins Payroll. Nanny Share Working
Each family in the share is a separate household employer, individually responsible for tax withholding, issuing a W-2, and complying with wage and overtime laws.12HomeWork Solutions. Nanny Share A written agreement covering schedules, duties, pay, and what happens if a family drops out prevents most disputes before they start.
Au Pairs
An au pair is a young person from abroad who provides child care under a government-regulated cultural exchange program. Annual program costs, including agency fees, a required weekly stipend of at least $195.75, and a $500 educational allowance, start around $21,000 to $23,000, compared to an average nanny cost of about $43,000 a year. Host families also provide room, board, and food. Care is capped at 45 hours per week, and the cost is per family, not per child, which makes an au pair especially useful for families with more than one young child.13Care.com. What Is an Au Pair
Cooperative Arrangements
Some families cut paid hours by trading care with other parents on set days, staggering shifts with a partner, or leaning on remote work schedules to shrink the total professional care they need each week.
Tax Breaks and Subsidies
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
Working families can claim 20 to 35 percent of qualifying child care expenses, depending on income, on up to $3,000 in expenses for one child or $6,000 for two or more. In-home care qualifies, including payments to nannies and babysitters, as long as the care lets you work or look for work. The credit is nonrefundable, so it reduces your tax bill but does not create a refund on its own.14H&R Block. Child and Dependent Care Credit Claim it on Form 2441, and you’ll need each provider’s name, address, and taxpayer identification number.15IRS. Child and Dependent Care Credit FAQs
Dependent Care FSA
A Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account lets you set aside pre-tax dollars for child care, up to $7,500 a year for joint or single filers, or $3,750 for married individuals filing separately. Nanny and babysitting expenses for dependents under age 13 are eligible.16FSAFEDS. Dependent Care FSA Any money left in the account at the end of the plan year and grace period is forfeited. If you use both a DCFSA and the Child and Dependent Care Credit, subtract your FSA contributions from the expenses you count toward the credit.
State Child Care Subsidies
Every state runs a child care subsidy program funded in part by the federal Child Care and Development Fund, which totals $12.38 billion in fiscal year 2026.17First Five Years Fund. CCDBG The program pays a portion of licensed care costs directly to the provider for low-income working families. The federal ceiling is 85 percent of state median income, parents must be working or in an approved activity like education or job training, and the child must be under 13. Thirty-one states set income limits lower than the federal maximum, and many localities keep waitlists because demand outstrips funding.18Bipartisan Policy Center. Child Care and Development Fund
Employer Benefits
Ask your employer what’s available. Child care benefits are now the top employee priority after health insurance and paid time off, and employees who receive them save an average of $2,727 a year out of pocket, according to a 2024 Care.com survey. Common offerings include Dependent Care FSAs, on-site care, cash subsidies, and emergency backup care. Fifty-six percent of employers are prioritizing these benefits for recruitment and retention.19First Five Years Fund. Employer Child Care Survey From Care.com
If You Hire a Nanny, You’re an Employer
Hiring a nanny or in-home caregiver makes you a household employer, with tax and labor obligations that quietly add to the true cost of care.
Classification. The IRS classifies nannies as employees, not independent contractors, because the family controls when, where, and how the work happens. Issuing a 1099 instead of a W-2 is misclassification, and both the IRS and the Department of Labor enforce against it.20INA. Nanny Taxes and Payroll
Payroll taxes. If you pay a household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages during 2026, you must withhold and pay FICA: 7.65 percent from the employee’s wages and a matching 7.65 percent from your own funds for Social Security and Medicare. Federal unemployment tax (FUTA) applies once you pay more than $1,000 in any calendar quarter, at a net rate of 0.6 percent on the first $7,000 of wages after the state unemployment credit.21IRS. Topic No. 756 Employment Taxes for Household Employees Federal income tax withholding is optional unless the employee asks for it.
Overtime. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, household employees are non-exempt and must be paid 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for any hours over 40 in a week. Paying a flat salary does not get you out of this.20INA. Nanny Taxes and Payroll
Reporting. Report household employment taxes on Schedule H attached to your personal Form 1040, and provide the employee a W-2 by January 31 of the following year.21IRS. Topic No. 756 Employment Taxes for Household Employees
Why the Number Keeps Climbing
Child care prices climbed 23 percent between 2021 and 2025, roughly matching overall inflation during that stretch.3Child Care Aware of America. Child Care in America: 2025 Price and Supply By late 2025, costs were rising 1.5 times faster than inflation, at 5.2 percent year over year nationally.22Bank of America Institute. Childcare Costs
Two forces are behind it. First, the workforce: child daycare workers earn a national median of $13.07 per hour, and about 43 percent of early educator families rely on at least one public assistance program.23UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Five Years After COVID-19: A Struggling Child Care Workforce Faces New Threats Low pay has pushed workers out of the sector; in 45 states, the number of early educators in 2023 was still below pre-pandemic levels.24The Century Foundation. Still Unaffordable: Child Care’s Rising Prices, Stretched Supply, and Staffing Shortages Second, supply: about 46 percent of U.S. children under 6 live in a “child care desert,” an area with more than three young children for every licensed slot, and in remote rural areas that figure rises to 70 percent.25Center for American Progress. America’s Licensed Child Care Deserts Fewer providers, more competition for each spot, and higher prices as a result.