MADISON – The Department of Children and Families (DCF) today released the results of a statewide survey of child care providers showing child care costs in Wisconsin significantly outpace inflation, with families with an infant in center-based care are seeing an average 8 percent increase in monthly tuition prices, while families with an infant in family-based care are seeing an average 13 percent increase.
“At the gas pump and grocery store, everyone is feeling the national affordability crisis. But the end of Child Care Counts and Bridge payments are leaving families with growing child care bills in addition to everything else,” said DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl. “Gov. Evers’ historic investments worked – it grew the number of child care providers and kept price increases low. With child care costing more than UW tuition and as much as a mortgage, families need us to build on these investments and permanently lower costs.”
The 2026 Market Rate Survey found that the average annual cost for full-time infant care is now $17,400 in center-based programs (22 percent of median household income) and $13,000 in family-based programs (17 percent of the median household income) in Wisconsin. With Wisconsin families spending, on average, more than a quarter of their income on homeownership costs alone, families are struggling to make ends meet, with most of their income being consumed by housing and child care.
“States are stepping up to build child care systems for an economy where most parents and guardians work,” said Pertl. “Gov. Evers’ investments in direct payments are the foundation of a modern child care system we need to build upon.”
In addition to demonstrating the overall increase in prices, the 2026 Market Rate Survey shows that increasing tuition rates are diluting the buying power of the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy, with only 60 percent of child care slots currently affordable. This is well below the state and federal target of 75 percent of child care slots being affordable for families who qualify for a subsidy.
Governor Evers secured funding to increase the subsidy rate twice in his tenure, putting the state the closest it has been to the 75 percent benchmark outlined in state statute and recommended by the federal government. Without Gov. Evers’ investment of over $123 million to increase subsidy rates as part of the 2025-27 biennial budget, only 25 percent of slots would have been considered affordable.
This press release is also available on our website.
