Many families have been effectively cutting a second rent check to send their kids to day care, according to new data from the Department of Labor. On average, families spent anywhere from $6,552 to as much as $15,600 on full-day care per child in 2022, the latest year with available data. While incomes also range widely throughout the country, households typically funnel between about 9% and 16% of their annual income on day care per child. But while child care costs help explain Americans’ economic dissatisfaction, an NBC News analysis of the Labor Department and election result data also hints at the limits of the issue politically. The most forbidding child care markets in 2022 voted two years later for Trump by higher margins than the nation overall, but so did many of the areas where child care was more affordable.

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Persons: It’s, Gretchen Livingston, ”, Donald Trump Organizations: Department of Labor, U.S . Department of Labor, Bureau, Labor Department’s Women’s, NBC, Labor Department, NBC News, Trump Locations: U.S