TRENTON, NJ — On the 5th annual “Day Without Child Care”, a coalition of parents, early learning educators, labor unions, and community organizations launched the Child Care For All NJ campaign today with a rally at the Statehouse Annex, demanding that New Jersey lawmakers prioritize childcare during budget negotiations.

The rally brought together working families and the overwhelmingly women-of-color workforce that cares for New Jersey’s children. Speakers called for nothing less than a transformation of how the state treats child care: not as a private burden for families to bear alone, but as public economic infrastructure essential to the state’s workforce and future.

A family in New Jersey, center-based infant care for one child costs an average of $20,213 per year—roughly $1,684 per month—making it the single largest household expense for most working families, outpacing rent, car payments, or in-state college tuition. That equals 16% of yearly earnings for just one child.