Sep 15, 2026 | 1:56 pm
With childrearing costs in the Lone Star State adding up to tens of thousands of dollars per year, many two-parent Texas families are navigating a difficult decision: should both parents work or should one parent stay home to raise the child?
For Texas families that choose the latter, the working parent needs to make nearly $73,000 per year to support their child and the stay-at-home parent, a new income analysis has revealed.
The newly released SmartAsset report used MIT’s Living Wage Calculator to estimate the annual living wages needed across all 50 states for a three-person household with two working adults and one child, and a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. Costs included food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes, and “other necessities.”…