Some high-end chains are surprisingly profitable, and they are trying to shape child care policy in Washington.
The prices can rival college tuition: Bright Horizons charges up to $44,000 a year for child care in Seattle; at KinderCare in Manhattan, it is up to $40,000.
And the services can be attentive. Parents often receive hourly updates: the exact time a baby dirtied a diaper, the number of raspberries a toddler ate at snack time, photos of 3-year-olds at the playground.
Millions of American families are coping with a child care shortage brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. But one end of the business is thriving: national chains, some charging silver-spoon prices.
That split reality is another marker of how income inequality shapes access to basic necessities like child care, and how it has become harder for lower- and middle-income parents, usually women, to get back into the work force after pandemic disruptions.