How the cost of childcare is expected to change under Trump or Harris

With the presidential election days away and early voting already underway in most states, America’s parents are wondering how the next administration could affect the rising cost of raising children.

In the last of B-17’s five-part series in the final stretch before the election, we’re looking at the ways each candidate and their proposed policies could influence the price of childcare. The series has already covered each how each candidate is expected to impact investments, overall costs, housing, and taxes.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have both talked about the importance of making childcare more affordable. Harris has put forth specific plans to help alleviate the high costs of raising children, while Trump’s campaign has focused mainly on increasing the amount of the child tax credit.

Below are three elements of the childcare equation and what the Harris and the Trump camps have either proposed or already done.

Childcare-cost assistance

Harris has promised to cap families’ childcare costs at no more than 7% of their incomes, compared to the between 8% and 19.3% spent by the median American family in 2022. The policy was first proposed in President Joe Biden’s 2021 Build Back Better package but was not passed by Congress.

As vice president, Harris said she’s working to encourage states to lower childcare costs by cutting copayments for the Child Care and Development Block Grant — a federal program that provides childcare subsidies for low-income families. Harris wants to make these subsidies more accessible for families of children who have disabilities, are experiencing homelessness, or are in foster care, and families living at or below 150% of the federal poverty line.

Trump has not included a specific policy to mitigate childcare costs in his 2024 campaign. While in office, Trump expanded the child tax credit, but he made no other major policy changes.

Neither Trump nor Harris have proposed plans to fund childcare facilities or boost hiring, though experts told B-17 that skyrocketing costs are in part because the industry is underfunded. The number of childcare workers is still below pre-pandemic levels.

“What’s partially driving that conundrum is that we put so much burden right now on parents — and parents alone — to foot the bill for childcare,” said Anne Hedgepeth, the senior vice president of policy and research at the advocacy organization Child Care Aware of America.

Cindy Lehnhoff, the director of the advocacy group National Child Care Association, said that previous federal funding pools, such as the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, helped to fund childcare facilities at the local and federal levels. She said more plans like it in the future could expand childcare options and make it more affordable for parents.

Child tax credits

Trump and Harris have both proposed expanding the child tax credit, which currently provides up to $2,000 per child.

Harris’ child tax credit policy would restore the enhanced pandemic-era credit, giving parents up to $3,600 annually per child, with the amount dependent on a child’s age and family income. The plan also includes a $6,000 tax credit for middle- and low-income families for the first year of their child’s life, which Harris said can be used to offset expenses like diapers, car seats, baby formula, and childcare. She has also proposed other tax cuts for middle- and low-income Americans, which would benefit some parents.

In August, the vice presidential candidate JD Vance floated a child tax credit proposal that would include $5,000 per child for families of all income levels. Previously, Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided about $2,000 of relief per eligible child, though the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said the plan excluded some low-income families and single-parent households.

The US’s pandemic-era child tax credit expired at the end of 2021 because Republicans in Congress opposed it. A renewed one — which would have boosted the amount of money families receive — was introduced to Congress earlier this year, but it failed to pass the Senate.

Paid leave

During her run for president in 2020, Harris supported a six-month paid-leave policy for Americans with a new child or a sick relative. Protecting paid leave at the federal level has been one of her key 2024 talking points, and she’s expected to build on Biden’s agenda, which supported 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

While in office, Trump signed a bipartisan bill that provided federal employees with 12 weeks of paid parental leave. He hasn’t emphasized the issue on the campaign trail.

While parents are legally allowed to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the US does not have a federal paid-leave policy. Some states have their own paid-leave requirements, and others leave policies up to individual employers.

Without federal paid-leave protections, many families would not have access to parental leave — which could lead to higher childcare costs and lower job security.