Childcare in South Dakota costs more than twice what family making median South Dakota income can afford:
According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, affordable childcare should be 7% of a family’s median income.
In South Dakota, the median household income is $59,896, according to 2020 U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.
That means that in theory, the median South Dakotan family should be paying about $4,100 a year per child in childcare services.
But in reality, childcare is much more expensive, especially considering the average Sioux Falls resident’s yearly wage is $39,000, according to the study.
The average cost of childcare in Sioux Falls is $10,000 per child per year, meaning families pay over $5,800 more than what the national statistics say affordable childcare should cost [Annie Todd, “Study Reveals $636M Affordability Gap for Childcare in South Dakota and Sioux Falls,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2022.06.20].
Bringing childcare into the affordability range for families of 54,000 kids depending on childcare outside the home would require pumping about $320 million more into those families’ wages, and that’s if we stick with the current average pay for childcare workers of $10.38 an hour. Raise childcare wages to a competitive $18 an hour, and the affordability gap rises to $636 million.
So tell me again: how has recruiting mask-refugees and other Freedom-trademarked malcontents to move to South Dakota helped raise wages and expand affordable child care?
Of the 25 best states for women 22 of them are blue according to the latest rankings from WalletHub. My home state of South Dakota still holds 51st place for the number of women who own businesses, 49th in percentage of women who voted in 2020 but tied for 1st with North Dakota for lowest unemployment among women.
The good news?
Brown workers can take the driver’s license exam in Spanish so white people can spend more time snorting and shooting meth.
What else would you expect, Mr. Kurtz? Our own governor pays out the wazoo to announce we are on meth. Mercy.
On a real note, we are in the middle of a food desert where meth is cheaper and more readily available than food. I assume meth has put more food on kids’ dinner plates and paid for more school clothes than SD’s pitiful economy. What is a mom to do when slanging is by far the most pragmatic option? Sometimes, the only option. Thanks, Governor. Great leadership…Not!
Go put another paycheck into a slot machine, gents. The ladies got it handled with the highest likelihood in the nation of women holding down more than one job. That is not something to exactly brag about. Our women are working their butts off, taxes are getting paid by them, regardless of the legality of how they survive and enable the men to do whatever it is they feel like. Like sit in a jail cell. That’s relaxing, no pressure. Our generation’s right of passage for young men.
Close the jails; start the draft.
South Dakota is driven by Republicans and South Dakota Republicans are driven by the directives of the Catholic Diocese which provides Catholic Family Serivces which offers free or reduced cost daycare to Republicans who apply and follow said directives.
“Anyone complaining about daycare cost is obviously a liberal Dement-O-Crat!” – Spirit of Todd BushThong
No, Ms. Aitch, only a small subset of the Republicans in South Dakota are driven by the Kniep wing of the Democrat religion.
No, Mr. grudznick. Every single plank of the SDGOP platform is parallel to the edicts of the RCC (Roman Catholic Church).
Grudz…The GOP’s acquisition of the majority of Catholic voters has assured them of political dominance. Since the introduction of prohibition until the rise of Women’s Liberation, a period from approximately 1890 to 1975, (Women’s Lib came late to South Dakota and never truly arrived}, Catholics voted, more often than not, in the Democrat column. Catholics, Farmer’s Union members, folks supporting the REA, laborers, and some small town business people made up the Democrats. They’ve never been able to replace the Catholics and the small farmers forced off the farm. Rural mainstreet business people are long gone.
Grudz…The GOP’s acquisition of the majority of Catholic voters has assured them of political dominance. Since the introduction of prohibition until the rise of Women’s Liberation, a period from approximately 1890 to 1975, (Women’s Lib came late to South Dakota and never truly arrived}, Catholics voted, more often than not, in the Democrat column. Catholics, Farmer’s Union members, folks supporting the REA, laborers, and some small town business people made up the Democrats. They’ve never been able to replace the Catholics and the small farmers forced off the farm. Rural main street business people are long gone.
Surprise! Despite being the most lucrative state to practice medicine Rapid City is tied with Toledo, Ohio as the worst city in the United Snakes for infant mortality according to WalletHub.
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-run-cities/22869