00:00I just never thought, oh, I wouldn't be working. I remember being pregnant at work during COVID,
00:06and then we had her, and we're like, oh my goodness, it's a lot.
00:09That's Bree Tresova. She's a mother of three who left her full-time job in hotel management in 2021,
00:15a few months after her first child was born. She quickly realized that the cost of a nanny
00:20or daycare would eat up most of her paycheck. The cost of childcare was so much. Although we
00:24could have probably made it work and broke even, it didn't make sense to be gone all day and to pay
00:31such a chunk of your salary to childcare. For families in New York City, Tresova's story is
00:37far from unique. The soaring cost of childcare has become a deciding factor in major life choices.
00:43In New York City, infant and toddler care averages as much as $26,000 a year, forcing parents to drain
00:50their savings, delay buying a home, or even quit their jobs altogether. That price tag is more
00:55than double the national average, according to federal data. In 2022, New York City lost $23
01:01billion alone in economic activity as parents quit their jobs or scaled back their careers to manage
01:08childcare. After Tresova's own experience of giving birth and lacking postpartum care, she trained as
01:14a doula and started her own business, giving her more flexibility. But after welcoming twin boys,
01:19childcare costs became overwhelming again. Recently, I was offered a position working
01:25here in Queens. But after speaking to their CFO, you know, the salary just didn't make sense. We shopped
01:33around a few daycares, especially in the area where I would be working. They either didn't have seats
01:40or the cost would be $32 to $3,600 a month for twins full time. A week after the inauguration of New York
01:47City Mayor, Zoran Mamdani, he and New York Governor Kathy Hochul launched a program called
01:522Care intended to support working parents like Tresova. This will be felt by expanded subsidies for
01:59tens of thousands of additional families. It will be felt when parents look at their bank accounts at
02:04the end of the year and see that they have saved more than $20,000 per child. When it launches later
02:11this year, it's expected to support nearly 2,000 children across New York City. Childcare advocates
02:17say the program is a significant step, but universal childcare hinges on funding. New Yorkers United for
02:23Childcare estimates that the program for two-year-olds would cost the city more than $1 billion a year.
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