As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, San Jose ranks the 13th largest city in the nation.

San Jose pays its childcare workers $20.98 an hour — among the top ten dollar wages in any American city — and still ranks 9 out of 100 on workforce health, among the worst in the nation. The arithmetic is housing. Santa Clara County's single-adult living wage is $37.93 an hour, putting a $43,640 lead-teacher salary at 55.3% of what one adult needs to live in the metro without children of their own. Centers across the Peninsula and South Bay report classroom closures driven not by lack of demand but by the inability to staff them. The city's $141,565 median household income carries a $29,157 infant-care bill at a 20.6% burden — California's lowest cost-burden percentage, achieved entirely by paying extreme prices out of extreme wages.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Ranked 83 of 250, score 56 (Moderate); #13 in California, lifted by 72.8% mothers' LFP and $141,565 median income — among the highest of any large US city.
Childcare workers earn $20.98/hr — top-ten dollar wages nationally — yet only 55.3% of the single-adult living wage of $37.93/hr.
Workforce Health subscore 9/100 — among the worst in the nation; centers report closures driven by inability to staff, not lack of demand.

Actionable takeaways

Frame San Jose as the housing-eats-everything story. Top-ten dollar wages for childcare workers ($20.98/hr) buy only 55.3% of the $37.93 single-adult living wage — Santa Clara housing is the variable, not the wage, and the 9/100 Workforce score is the cleanest indicator anywhere in the country.
Watch Peninsula and South Bay center closures. Centers report empty classrooms not from missing parents but from missing teachers; track license relinquishments at the county level as a leading indicator of which neighborhoods lose capacity next.
Document the Central Valley commute pipeline. A meaningful share of SJ lead teachers commute in from Tracy, Manteca, and East SJ, eating an hour-plus each way — an operational reality that explains classroom-rotation churn invisible in headline metrics.

Affordability — 60/100

A San Jose family with one infant in center-based care pays $29,157 per year — the third-highest figure in our city dataset, behind only San Francisco and a handful of similarly priced metros. Against the city's $141,565 median household income, that's 20.6% of pretax earnings — the lowest cost-burden percentage in California, but only because Santa Clara County wages are extreme. For a single-income or median-income household, the dollar number is what matters: $2,430 a month, more than two-thirds of the city's $2,617 median gross rent. Family child care homes run $21,079 a year — itself higher than total infant-care costs in most other US cities. The 60/100 Affordability subscore reflects what the percentage masks: in absolute dollars, San Jose is one of the most expensive markets in the country.

Supply — 63/100

Santa Clara County offers an estimated 48,349 licensed slots against 124,086 children under five with working parents. The 7.42 licensed establishments per 1,000 children under five is nearly double the California state average of 4.23 and reflects the county's investment in early-care infrastructure. The Supply subscore of 63/100 is the highest among California's 11 largest cities. The constraint is not establishment density but cost-per-slot: many of these centers operate at price points that effectively exclude lower-income families, and the long Silicon Valley commute compresses the time window in which parents can drop off and pick up.

Workforce — 9/100

Here is the Bay Area paradox in one number. The median San Jose childcare worker earns $20.98 an hour — among the top 10 dollar wages of any US city — yet only 55.3% of the single-adult living wage of $37.93. That 9/100 Workforce Health subscore is among the worst in the nation. A childcare worker in San Jose taking home $43,640 a year cannot, in most parts of Santa Clara County, afford a one-bedroom apartment without roommates or a partner's income. Many lead teachers commute in from the Central Valley or from East San Jose, eating an hour or more each way. Centers across the Peninsula and South Bay report classroom closures driven not by lack of demand but by inability to staff — the housing-cost squeeze has decoupled high dollar wages from any meaningful purchasing power.

Family strain — 84/100

Mothers' labor force participation among San Jose women with children under six is 72.8% — among the higher readings in the index. Single parents head 21.9% of family households, well below the national 31.8% and one of the lower shares among California's largest cities. The 84/100 Family Strain subscore is among the highest in California (Berkeley, Elk Grove, and San Francisco score higher). Read straight, the city's family system absorbs childcare costs because dual-earner households with two top-decile salaries can pay them. The qualifier matters: any household not in that top-decile bracket faces the same prices without the same income.

Policy support — 56/100

Inherited from California. The state enrolls 48% of 4-year-olds in publicly funded pre-K and spends $15,192 per child. CCDF subsidies reach 16.4% of eligible children. Paid family leave provides 8 weeks at 90% wage replacement. Policy is measured at the state level; Santa Clara County families benefit from the same framework as the rest of California.

In-home care in San Jose

In-home care in San Jose typically reflects metro-wide Bay Area nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates running at the top of the national range. The Silicon Valley dual-earner profile — long hours, frequent travel, and household incomes that make the math tractable — has made nanny placements a default rather than a luxury for many families. Nanny shares between neighboring households in Willow Glen, Almaden Valley, and parts of Cupertino and Los Gatos are common, and au pair placements through State Department-designated J-1 sponsors remain popular with families who have the housing space.

Methodology: The the score is a 0-100 composite score across five dimensions: Affordability (30 pts), Supply (25 pts), Workforce Health (15 pts), Family Strain (15 pts), and Policy Support (15 pts). City-level prices and supply use the city's primary containing county. Policy Support is measured at the state level. Full methodology and data sources: beverly.io/research/methodology.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates; U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau National Database of Childcare Prices; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS (May 2024) and QCEW; Buffett Early Childhood Institute / Bipartisan Policy Center / Child Care Aware childcaregap.org (Sept 2025); NIEER State of Preschool Yearbook 2024; HHS ACF CCDF FY2023; National Partnership for Women & Families (March 2026).

Methodology. The State of Childcare Index is a 0-100 composite score across five dimensions: Affordability (30 pts), Supply (25 pts), Workforce Health (15 pts), Family Strain (15 pts), and Policy Support (15 pts). Each dimension draws on publicly available federal data: U.S. Census ACS (5-year), DOL Women's Bureau NDCP, BLS OEWS and QCEW, the Buffett/BPC/CCAoA childcaregap.org dataset, NIEER State of Preschool, and HHS ACF CCDF reports. City-level prices and supply use the city's primary containing county. Policy Support is measured at the state level. Full methodology and data sources: /research/methodology.