A two-child household must earn $400,000 a year for childcare to be affordable, study says. ‘It’s easy to see why birth rates are falling’

The average American family doesn’t come close to having enough income to comfortably afford childcare, according to a LendingTree study last month.

Federal guidelines say that childcare is affordable if it consumes no more than 7% of household income. Citing data from Child Care Aware of America, LendingTree found that the average annual cost of care for an infant and a 4-year-old is $28,190 nationwide.

That would require household income of $402,708 a year to meet the 7% benchmark.