Why is child care so expensive in Wisconsin? Learn more about these three contributing factors that are causing daycare costs to skyrocket.
Everything feels unaffordable lately—groceries, gas, health care, and especially the overall costs associated with raising a family. Whether you have a small family with just a single child or a larger family with more kiddos, costs are untenable for many Wisconsinites.
Depending on your child’s age and the type of provider you choose, child care costs can range from $11,088 to $18,239 annually. That’s equivalent to (but mostly exceeds) a year’s worth of tuition and fees at UW-Madison, or a year’s worth of groceries—I mean, can you imagine how much cheese you could get with that?
Hannah R., a mom in southeastern Wisconsin who has her six-month-old in daycare three days a week, says it runs her family about $255 each week (the minimum number of days an infant has to be enrolled at that location). “We’re incredibly fortunate that my dad can watch him the other two days. Also, we’re able to make it work as a two-income household, but if we had more kids I’d have to look at being a stay-at-home mom. Honestly, if I were a single parent, I couldn’t afford it,” she said.
It feels like a joke (although not a very funny one) that child care costs make up just under a quarter of families’ annual income. So what exactly is making child care so expensive in Wisconsin?
Reduced government funding
First things first, we all know it’s about the money, money, money—childcare programs are woefully underfunded and have been for a long time.
The pandemic was a rough ride for everyone, but especially for child care providers. Beginning in March 2020, the state government approved Child Care Counts (CCC), which temporarily gave providers an extra boost using federal funding.
When this funding approached its end in June 2025, providers reported that it would likely negatively impact their programs, resulting in being unable to serve as many children, reducing the hours they could offer care, or, in the worst-case scenario, ending up closing centers altogether.
Fortunately, recognizing how critical child care is to healthy communities, Governor Evers created the Child Care Bridge Program as a band-aid, supplying additional funding for another year. Unfortunately, that program also ended this summer (June 2026).
You’d think with so many families needing child care that business would be booming. But believe it or not, between the expenses of running daycare centers and paying staff, they barely make enough to keep the doors open and the lights on without raising tuition for families even higher. But without extra support from state or federal government, child care providers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Increased costs for centers, spiking tuition hikes
Another clear reason child care costs more these days is because of good ol’ inflation. While many in the current administration argue affordability isn’t that big of a deal, people feel it every day when it comes to non-negotiable expenses, like families relying on child care.
If a parent needs a reliable place to care for their kid while they go to work but can’t afford the tuition, chances are they lose that work—it’s a devastating cycle that continues. Parents (statistically, moms) leaving the workforce hurts Wisconsin’s economy, with losses estimated at about $ 1.1 billion.
There aren’t a ton of great other options to manage these climbing costs without passing the buck over to families, but most of the time that’s what ends up happening. Unfortunately, sometimes child care rates get so expensive that they price families out of the market altogether.
In order for child care centers to stay operational, they have to raise tuition regularly, which is hard when they already know families are struggling. With inflation, operational costs are rising, and paying daycare teachers a reasonable wage is increasingly challenging.
Paying staff a decent wage
Additionally, the cost of care keeps rising because of teacher shortages and the overall cost of paying parents centers can retain. Child care providers and teachers keep our kids safe, fed, and content, which is a tall order for an average lead teacher making only $13.55 an hour.
Along with low wages, benefits like health care or paid time off are often scant or nonexistent. According to MIT, a living wage for a single person is just above $20 an hour, while a poverty wage sits at $7.67—and the average wage in Wisconsin for child care teachers hovers closer to the poverty wage than a living wage.
The competition for great teachers is tight. If teachers can find a role that pays better, like working with school-aged children in a traditional school setting, of course they’re going to take it. This just adds fuel to the fire of high staff turnover, creating more challenges for existing daycare staff who have to take on extra work to fill the gaps while a new person is hired.
The burnout that comes with caring for kids full-time, even when you’re getting paid to do it, is a lot. Providers need to offer a high enough wage to attract qualified, reliable folks who can stick around for a while.
