On Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that 10,000 more seats under his signature free childcare for two-year-olds program will be covered in fall 2027. Under the expansion, all of the Bronx and Staten Island's school districts will be eligible.
"For far too many New York City families, the joy of welcoming a child comes with a terrifying set of questions: How will I afford child care? Will I need to give up my job? Will I be forced to leave the city I love?" Mamdani said in a statement. "Today, for 10,000 more families, we have an answer."
Those affordability questions loom large for urban parents around the country. Cities including New York have seen their under-five population fall since the onset of the pandemic.
Between April 2020 and July 2024, the population of children under five fell by 18% in New York City, per an analysis from the Economic Innovation Group. That population collapsed by 15% in San Francisco, 15% in Chicago's Cook County, and 14% in Los Angeles County over the same period. Lowering childcare costs, a key plank of Mamdani's platform, was one area where even CEOs agreed with the socialist.
In New York, families with kids under six were more than twice as likely to leave the city as families without younger children, according to a Fiscal Policy Institute analysis.
The share of two-year-olds in New York City's population fell as families fled the city during the pandemic, before rebounding somewhat in 2024 and 2025.
For parents still in the city, childcare costs for toddlers in care centers reached $23,400 annually in 2024, per an analysis from the comptroller's office. That means a New York family would have to earn at least $334,000 to pay only 7% of their family income for childcare, the federal definition of affordable.
The new 2-K program, which has reportedly faced implementation problems including funding and payment delays, initially targeted a handful of districts based on economic need and childcare demand.
Even as providers wrangle with funding issues and the program's rollout, children across the city recently started their first days in 2-K. At a Friends of Crown Heights center in Brooklyn, mother Jessica Arroyo said it meant "everything" to have her daughter accepted into 2-K.
"I can work in peace," Arroyo said. "She can learn, make new friends."
Are you a New Yorker or childcare provider involved with 2-K? Share your story with this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
As the Iran War continues, gas prices remain high — a real strain for consumers.
The conflict has kept diesel, crude oil, and gas prices high; inflation is eating up pay hikes.
As America heads into midterms, it's a hard affordability position for President Donald Trump.
It's expensive out there: Gas prices have been stuck at over $4 a gallon for more days this year than any other. The war in Iran shows no signs of cooling off. Inflation is swallowing any raises you might have gotten at work.
It's a recipe for a challenging midterm cycle for President Donald Trump, who faces an affordability crisis at home that's not going away — and a far-away war that's only making costs go up.
The volatility surrounding the contested Strait of Hormuz, a key oil and gas transit waterway, has hit American consumers hard.
Since the Iran war first kicked off in February and the Strait was subsequently closed, gas and oil prices have skyrocketed. Diesel prices have hit record-breaking highs in recent weeks. That paints a dreary picture for Americans struggling with high costs, who likely won't feel any relief at the pump in the near future — especially as more potential military action looms.
Trump has highlighted the broader goals of the war and argued that the increase in gas prices would be transient. In an October 8 Truth Social post, he wrote, "a temporary increase in the price of Gasoline is a small price to pay for Iran not having a Nuclear Weapon."
While the US military has not carried out airstrikes against Iran directly in several months, it has kept a significant force presence in the Middle East, including more than a dozen warships, dozens of fighter jets, and thousands of sailors and Marines.
US forces in the region are maintaining a naval blockade against Iran, and since July, they have disabled four commercial ships that the Pentagon said were sailing in violation.
After the start of the war in February, crude oil prices soared and remain significantly higher than when Trump's second term began.
Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz nearly ground to a halt early in the Iran war, severely disrupting a waterway that normally carries about a fifth of the world's oil supply. Shipments have since recovered substantially but remain below prewar levels.
The Trump administration said it aims to alleviate issues related to oil. "The President wants to see prices at the pump fall and continues to take historic measures to alleviate temporary disruptions as oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz approaches pre-conflict levels," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
Vessels carrying oil and other products have continued to take fire from both sides, putting more pressure on commerce traveling through the area. US forces have carried out additional strikes on Iranian-linked targets. The Pentagon said they have destroyed 10 tankers tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, since July.
Meanwhile, several merchant ships have come under attack in and around the Strait of Hormuz this month, according to the Royal Navy-affiliated United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center. US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, has attributed some of these strikes to Iran.
The ripples of volatility in oil prices are showing up at the pump. Long gone are the days of gas stations touting below-$3 prices; prices are still hovering in the mid-$4 range. High gas prices are even tamping down spending among higher-income consumers, and soaring costs have led to a rise in "hypermilers" — drivers who try to optimize and gamify their habits to get the best value per gallon.
Diesel prices in the US have spiked even more, up to around $6.18 per gallon, an over $2.50 increase over the year, per the Energy Information Administration. In California, diesel is hovering over $8 a gallon.
Those fuel and energy strains are pushing up costs across the economy. Inflation as tracked by the consumer price index increased to 3.7% year-over-year in September — higher than economists expected. That was driven in large part by soaring gas and energy prices, with energy rising by 20.4% year-over-year and gas by 34.2% in the same period.
Higher inflation has put pressure on the Fed and bond markets. In September, the central bank raised rates for the first time in three years to try to combat rising prices, with one more hike potentially coming by year's end. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, has surged since the war began, from below 4% at the end of February to a high of 5.31% this month. The 30-year mortgage has risen nearly in lockstep, going from just under 6% to 7.5% during the eight-month conflict.
For everyday Americans, all of these international strains amount to what is, essentially, a pay cut. Wage growth remains slow and steady, but, over the past few months, rising prices have outpaced pay increases. Inflation-adjusted wages have slumped since the start of the war, and have given up nearly all their gains since the start of Trump's second term.
When asked for comment, the White House highlighted that by some measures, earnings are still outpacing inflation. "Under President Trump, private sector workers have seen their wages continue to outpace inflation, with average annual earnings growing by more than $600," said White House spokesperson Matthew Middleton.
And, with midterm season in full swing, affordability is on the ballot for many voters. The current economic situation shows no immediate signs of changing — another blow for Trump, who's been on a quest to bring down gas prices.
There are growing signs that the US could be preparing for fresh military action against Iran. Another aircraft carrier strike group is sailing across the Pacific and is expected to enter the Middle East.
The Trump administration is also facing a resurgence in attacks from the Houthis, a rebel group in Yemen. In recent weeks, the Iran-backed rebels have seized key territory along the Red Sea, allowing them to threaten the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, another maritime chokepoint like Hormuz, and have ramped up missile strikes against Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis previously tormented Red Sea shipping, leading the Trump administration to launch a major bombing campaign last year that ended in a ceasefire. The rebels have since rearmed.
Any other disruptions there might be bad news for consumers, potentially bringing more price spikes across the many goods shipped through that chokepoint.
A Pew Research Center survey found 71% of middle-income earners have cut back on spending on extras, such as eating out.
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A Pew Research survey found only 47% of middle-income earners could save money in the past year.
Lower-income earners are also having a hard time saving and affording necessities.
Inflation moving in the wrong direction doesn't help the affordability situation.
America's middle earners are feeling the squeeze.
A new analysis from the Pew Research Center examines how Americans' finances are faring, an especially salient topic in a midterm season where affordability is very much on the ballot.
America's middle earners — those who make between $50,700 and $152,000 after adjusting for their family sizes and the cost of living in their areas — increasingly don't have enough saved for an emergency. Just over half of middle-income Americans say they don't have rainy-day funds that would cover expenses for three months in the event of an emergency.
Meanwhile, 47% of middle-income earners — and a measly 24% of lower-income earners — reported being able to save money in the past year. Across all income tiers, the majority of respondents said they had cut back spending on extras like eating out or streaming services.
Those dwindling emergency funds and sacrifices might be due to rising costs, which often take a particularly large bite out of lower-earners' wallets.
It could be getting worse; inflation is moving in the wrong direction. In September, the consumer price index inflation rate rose from 3.4% to 3.7%, just above the 3.6% forecast. Plus, inflation-adjusted wages have been falling for six months.
Today's economy is still more difficult for those at the bottom of the earnings ladder. Fifty-one percent of lower-income respondents said they can pay all of their bills in full in the 2026 survey, down from 56% in 2020. For middle-income respondents, the share dropped from 81% in 2020 to 78% in 2026, while the share of upper-income respondents held steady at 93%.
Pew also found 71% of lower-income US adults struggled with at least one kind of basic necessity, like affording medical care or paying their rent or mortgage, in the past year, compared with 39% of middle-income and 13% of upper-income Americans.
But the latest survey marks another sign that middle-income earners are increasingly aligning with their lower-earning peers, a dour sign for the health of the middle class. A separate report from the Urban Institute found that, even as lower-income renters were the most likely to report issues paying the rent, middle-income renters were increasingly likely to report struggling to pay.
Similarly, middle-income earners' consumer sentiment has switched from mirroring their higher-earning peers to more closely aligning with lower earners — another sign that the middle class is falling on harder economic times.
"Working people are living on the edge, working longer and harder than ever for less money," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. "They're angry every time they fill the tank. They're terrified of what their heating bills will look like this winter."
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