A deepening childcare crisis is costing Washington parents, businesses and taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

Washington’s economy is projected to lose $6.3 billion annually because parents can’t find affordable, accessible, high-quality childcare, according to an April study.

In March, researchers with ReadyNation — a nonprofit organization that studies childhood, education and the workforce — surveyed 600 Washington parents with children ages 5 and younger. They calculated that parents in the state were losing $5 billion in earnings each year, while businesses lost an estimated $1.3 billion from side effects of the childcare crisis, such as diminished productivity and fewer staff.

King County parents — and businesses — comprise the bulk of the state’s lost earnings, according to the study. In King County, parents lose an average of $14,300 each year due to insufficient childcare, compared with a statewide average of $9,740, according to Kristin Wiggins, a project lead for ReadyNation. Their lost earnings make up 60% of Washington parents’ total lost earnings.

While childcare costs continue to increase nationwide, families are hit particularly hard in Washington, where childcare can cost nearly twice as much as in-state college tuition. Families here pay an average of $21,000 a year for their children to attend licensed childcare facilities, according to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families. Those costs are among the highest in the country.

Some Washington families wait months or more than a year to secure a spot. And that’s just for those who are able to access childcare, which can be hard to come by, especially in rural areas.

For many parents, a lack of childcare also comes at a high cost beyond wages: perhaps a promotion or a pay raise. For some, it’s cost an entire career.

In Metaline, a town near Washington’s borders with Canada and Idaho, it's almost universal for one parent to leave the workforce to take on childcare responsibilities.

“Nearly everyone that I know of has had to step away from their jobs,” said Elizabeth Terrill, 36, a mother of two young children who quit her job four years ago to support her family. She now advocates for childcare access in rural Washington.

Terrill and her husband, Tim, moved to Pend Oreille County in 2019 for Tim’s apprenticeship at Boundary Dam, where she was also hired soon after.

However, when she became pregnant with their first child — who’s now 4 — Terrill realized there were virtually no childcare options near their home. If she enrolled her daughter in a licensed childcare center, she would have to drive an hour along an ill-maintained rural road, leaving at 4 a.m. to drop her off. Then, she would have to drive another hour back to Metaline and a third hour in the opposite direction to get to work. After her shift, she would have to make the three-hour trip again.

After being granted six months of family bonding leave, three months from her employer and three months from the state, Terrill returned to work for a few days in 2023 but realized her new responsibilities as a mother were unrealistic to juggle with a career.

She recalled telling Tim: “I really don't want to give this job up, but I don't see how else we can make this work.”

Since then, Terrill and her husband have welcomed another child, who is now 2 years old. But she said parenting sometimes feels like “invisible labor” for someone who earned a teaching certificate and a history degree from Eastern Washington University.

“It's been great to see my kids and watch my kids grow up, but I don't feel like I'm anything other than a mom sometimes, which can be hard because I worked hard to get a degree,” Terrill said.

The effect is more than personal. When parents are earning less, they have less capacity to contribute to the economy, said Wiggins of ReadyNation.

“I might not be able to afford property. I might not be consuming as much. I might not be spending money on other services,” said Wiggins. “So, that's the near-term impact to our economy.”

Businesses also feel the effects of parents’ childcare struggles. While childcare and work conflicts cost businesses an average of $2,490 each year, they cost King County businesses an average of $3,660 each year. Just as for parents, King County businesses' losses stack up to about 60% of Washington businesses’ total losses, according to the study.

Parents and employers aren’t the only ones burdened by childcare costs. Whether parents can find affordable, high-quality childcare also holds long-term consequences for taxpayers who ultimately fund services such as the state’s prisons, food and housing assistance programs.

“We have impacts on an individual, familial, community and society level that can either cost our tax base more money or contribute to it based on how things go in the early years,” Wiggins said.

Children who receive high-quality childcare are more likely to be prepared for school, graduate on time, earn higher incomes and grow up to be active citizens who are more involved with their communities, said Wiggins. They’re also less likely to get involved with crime or depend on social services, she added.

The situation isn’t any less dire for childcare providers, who often face the same affordability challenges parents and businesses do, especially in areas such as King County where the cost of living and renting continues to climb, Wiggins said.

“Renting space, owning space … That can be a real challenge for our childcare providers, as well as wanting to pay a fair wage to our childcare providers,” she said.

The April study showed Washington childcare providers earn $18 an hour on average. (The average hourly wage in Washington in 2024 was $37.28, according to the most recent data from the state’s Employment Security Department.) Low pay in the sector is fueling high staff turnover and a shortage of qualified providers to address the state’s childcare demands, mirroring national trends in an industry plagued by inadequate wages and high turnover.

Data shows the crisis is accelerating. Wiggins pointed to a similar study from two years ago that showed Washington parents lost an average of $2,458 each year due to childcare struggles. The latest research shows parents’ losses have quadrupled to $9,740 per year.

Nationwide, it’s more common for mothers to leave the workforce to stay home with their children than fathers, but Washington’s data showed childcare challenges affected parents almost equally, regardless of gender. Respondents to ReadyNation’s survey were 56% mothers and 44% fathers.

“This isn't just a working mom's issue, it's both parents (that) are impacted,” Wiggins said.

For those like Terrill, leaving a job to assume childcare responsibilities was “a huge step back.”

While they’ve been able to support the family on her husband’s income, Terrill said she’s still concerned for the future.

“We don't have the ability to contribute to my retirement,” she said. “I'm 36 and who knows what the cost of living is going to be like when I'm 65 or 67, when I'm at retirement age. Will we have enough to stay in our house, to make our tax payments, to care for ourselves, if we have high medical needs?”

Terrill made use of Washington’s paid family leave after the birth of her children, but she said expanding paid parental leave could help ease the tension between parents’ work and childcare.

“What I would love to see is an expansion of paid parental leave on a national level, something more comparable to what Canada does, which is like 12 months to 18 months, with a guarantee that your job will be there when you get back.”

She said an integrated approach to childcare where centers are connected to workspaces, like hospitals and offices, could also reduce barriers to access.

In the meantime, Terrill is still grappling with the fact that there is no childcare in her area.

“There’s nothing. It’s not even that I want a Montessori approach, or I want a bilingual approach,” she said. “It’s that I don’t have anything.”

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