A lack of child care is keeping this 43-year-old mother of four out of the workforce
This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans.
This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans.
Stefanie Longenecker would love to take advantage of rising wages, a strong job market and the master’s degree she’s still paying off. But she has been sidelined from the workforce by a child care system that has grown inaccessible for many families.
Longenecker, 43, left her job as a hospital pathologist during the pandemic to care for her young children amid repeated day care and school closings. Last fall, while she was shopping around for child care for three of her four children in hope of returning to work, one provider quoted her $4,300 a month and couldn’t say when a spot would open up. Another center that would have cost $3,500 a month already had 70 infants on its waitlist.
“It would be great for my family if I could go back to work,” Longenecker said, but so far, “that’s just not in the cards.”
Primary source of income: $80,000 to $90,000 a year from her husband’s work as a mechanic, depending on overtime. The couple’s income has been more than halved since 2020, when Longenecker left her job, where she made more than $110,000 annually working with surgical specimens in a hospital lab.
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