As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Rochester ranks the 227th largest city in the nation.

Mothers' labor force participation in Rochester households with kids under six runs 81% — among the highest figures in the cohort and the structural backdrop to a city built around Mayo Clinic. Olmsted County families earn more than either Twin Cities county ($87,767 median household income), but the metro price basket is uniform: $26,457 a year for one infant in a licensed center, 30.1% of pre-tax pay. Childcare workers earn $14.63 an hour, the lowest in Minnesota's indexed cities and just 62% of the local living wage, because Rochester centers compete directly with Mayo's entry-level service positions and lose. The 50/100 composite ranks Rochester 127th nationally — second of three Minnesota cities, with the tightest workforce score in the state.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 50/100, Strained, ranked 127 of 250; infant care consumes 30.1% of household income despite an $87,767 median earnings base.
Mothers' LFP for kids under six runs 81%, among the highest in the cohort; built around Mayo Clinic's two-earner workforce.
Childcare worker median wage $14.63/hr — the lowest of Minnesota's indexed cities; covers just 62% of the local living wage.

Actionable takeaways

Mayo Clinic is both the demand engine and the wage suppressor. Olmsted County's $87,767 income — highest in MN's indexed cities — comes from a two-earner Mayo workforce, but Mayo's entry-level service positions also pull the same labor pool that staffs licensed centers. The local follow-up is what employer-affiliated care Mayo runs and whether any of it is licensed.
The structural driver of strain at 90 is dual-professional household structure. 81% mothers' LFP and a 25.8% single-parent share — well below national — describe a city where childcare demand is structural, not cyclical, and where atypical-hours clinical schedules push families toward in-home options.
Watch how MN's 2026 PFML stacks with Mayo employer benefits. For employees of the city's dominant institution, the interaction effect is the most consequential 2026 policy question — and Mayo's HR posture sets a benchmark other Rochester employers will follow.

Affordability — 9/100

A typical Rochester family pays $26,457 a year for one infant in a licensed Olmsted County center — about 30.1% of the city's $87,767 median household income. Rochester earns more than either Minneapolis ($80,269) or Saint Paul ($73,055), but it pays the same metro-area NDCP price for center care, so the affordability burden lands in the same uncomfortable range. The childcare-to-rent ratio is 1.68 — care costs 68% more than housing each month. Family child care homes price meaningfully lower at $11,085 for an infant, the most affordable FCC rate in the cohort, which gives Rochester families a more realistic non-center option than peers in the Twin Cities. A Rochester family with two children in licensed centers will spend close to $49,000 a year, again outpacing what an entry-level Mayo support worker earns full-time.

Supply — 67/100

Olmsted County offers an estimated 50 licensed slots for every 100 children under five with working parents — slightly below the national benchmark of 73 but well above what the threshold for childcare desert classification would require. Rochester has 48 licensed establishments serving roughly 8,300 children under five, or 4.6 establishments per 1,000 — modestly above the national density. The Mayo Clinic ecosystem also supports several employer-affiliated childcare programs that do not appear in licensed-establishment counts, which means real-world capacity is likely somewhat better than the headline number suggests.

Workforce — 53/100

The median Rochester childcare worker earns $14.63 an hour, or $30,420 a year — the lowest in Minnesota's three indexed cities and roughly $2.30 below the Minneapolis-Saint Paul median. That wage covers just 62% of the local single-adult living wage of $23.59 an hour. The gap is wider here than in the Twin Cities, and the consequence is that Rochester center directors compete directly against Mayo Clinic's entry-level service positions for the same labor pool — and lose. The workforce score of 53 reflects this structural pressure: even strong demand for childcare cannot pull wages up against a dominant institutional employer.

Family strain — 90/100

Mothers' labor force participation for those with kids under six is 80.98% — among the highest in this cohort and roughly 13 points above the national average. The single-parent share is 25.8%, well below the national 31.8%. Together, these numbers describe a city where two-earner married households are the dominant family structure and where the demand for childcare is structural, not cyclical. The Mayo Clinic workforce skews toward mid- and late-career professionals with stable incomes, which both supports the demand and helps explain why the high price point has not yet collapsed market participation.

Policy support — 60/100

Minnesota enrolls about 11% of four-year-olds in state-funded pre-K and meets 5.4 of 10 NIEER quality benchmarks. The state's CCDF subsidy reaches 23.9% of eligible children. The 2026 launch of Minnesota's Paid Family and Medical Leave program — up to 12 weeks at roughly 90% wage replacement — is the most consequential near-term change for Rochester families. For Mayo employees specifically, the new state program will stack with employer benefits in ways still being worked out. Policy is measured at the state level.

In-home care in Rochester

In-home care in Rochester reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns common to mid-sized Midwestern hospital cities, with full-time live-out rates broadly in line with the broader Minnesota market. Demand patterns here are shaped by Mayo's atypical-hours workforce: rotating shifts, overnight rounds, and unpredictable on-call schedules push some clinical families toward live-in or near-live-in arrangements that center care cannot accommodate. Au pair placements are a small but visible slice of the market for the same reason.

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.