Moms First Launches New Campaign “Child Care First NYC” To Challenge Mayoral Hopefuls to Prioritize Child Care
New York City loses $23 billion per year due to lack of child care—more than the MTA’s annual budget
September 9, 2025 (New York, NY) — Moms First, the national non-profit organization fighting for America’s moms and policies like affordable child care and paid leave, today announced the launch of Child Care First NYC, a new campaign putting child care at the center of the 2025 New York City mayoral race and the city’s affordability agenda. The campaign will call on all mayoral candidates to commit to investments in child care in their first 100 days in office.
“If you can’t afford child care in New York City, you can’t afford to live here—and that’s a problem every New Yorker should care about,” said Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of Moms First. “This isn’t just a parent issue. It’s a city issue. Every neighborhood, every business, every voter feels it. New Yorkers are tired of promises—we need to see real plans and real investment in child care.”
To launch the campaign, Moms First premiered a video starring Reshma Saujani live on Instagram today. In the video, Saujani calls out the city’s child care crisis and challenges mayoral candidates to show New Yorkers their solutions. Her direct address positions her as a key voice in the mayoral conversation, offering a perspective that demands attention.
The campaign, already featured in The New York Times ahead of its official launch, will run through the general election and includes:
- The Put Child Care First Petition calling on mayoral candidates to prioritize child care investments in their first 100 days. This grassroots effort gives New Yorkers a direct way to demand solutions that ease the crushing cost of care and protect the city’s economic future.
- Engagement with the city’s business leaders as champions of child care as a workforce imperative through events co-hosted with local business partners, building on Moms First’s National Business Coalition for Child Care
- Collaborations with partners like the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law to ensure child care tops the city’s affordability agenda
New York City has become unaffordable for working families and their biggest expense is child care. Families spend up to $40,000 a year on child care — more than rent and in-state college tuition — and more than half go into debt to pay for child care. At the same time, many child care workers — disproportionately women and women of color — earn poverty wages and 7 out of 10 kids live in neighborhoods with insufficient child care options.
This adds up to an economic crisis for the city. Families with young children are twice as likely to leave NYC as those without. The city loses $23 billion per year in lost productivity and tax revenue due to lack of child care, more than the MTA’s annual budget.
“Call me crazy, but I think New Yorkers should be able to afford raising kids in New York,” continued Saujani. “Our message to the next mayor is simple: if you want to lead on affordability, you need to put child care first.”
Child Care First NYC builds on Moms First’s national track record of making child care impossible to ignore. In 2024, Moms First made child care a centerpiece of the election, mobilizing 15,000 supporters to demand CNN include it in the first presidential debate. This year, Moms First declared child care an economic issue in its call for Congress and the Trump administration to prioritize it in the new tax bill, a push that helped secure the first new federal investments in decades.
ABOUT MOMS FIRST
Moms First is fighting for America’s moms. Our mission is to win paid leave and child care as economic imperatives that allow families to thrive. Our vision is a country that values motherhood and supports moms and families. Learn more at momsfirst.us.
MEDIA NOTE:
Interviews with Reshma Saujani and local moms are available upon request. The campaign launch video is live on Instagram, and we can provide the video file to press for coverage.