Hi all. Looking for some nanny advice and would love to hear from those of you who have nannies or are nannies. I nanny for my SIL. Her husband is a teacher so i work school hours and just the school calendar. Last year I watched my nephew from the age of 5 months to 14 months. My youngest was in preschool for 4 mornings 4 days a week so she was with me while i watched him when she was not in school. I was able to bring him along anywhere i went from school drop offs and pick ups to food shopping and classroom volunteering. They paid me but not what a nanny would cost in our area which i was fine with since i had my daughter with me and i had so much flexibility. As to duties beyond basic care i made his breakfast and lunch, bottles, did his laundry, cleaned up after him and did some basic shopping for him (grabbed things I'd think he'd eat and supplies for seasonal crafts.) My SIL is due in two weeks so come November when her maternity leave ends they'd like me to watch my nephew who will be 19 months and the new baby who will be 3 months old. All my kids will be in school full time as my youngest heads off to kindergarten. I feel like a significant jump in pay is warrented. I'll now be watching a toddler and an infant and i can't imagine having the flexibity i had last year. What do you think is a resonable salary and what duties do you expect a nanny to do? Pay hourly or salary? Pay for gas? On the books or off the books? Do you provide food for the nanny? Paid vacation? Any advice would be great. I don't want to undervalue myself nor do i want my SIL to feel like I'm being unresonable. Thanks.
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I can’t comment on salary because it varies so much by location. But I agree that you are due a raise with the added responsibility of caring for a newborn.
We have a helper who is currently part time nannying my LOs while they are on school break. She takes them to activities or just watches them at home. She will feed them when I’m gone and is usually very good at cleaning up their messes. I pay her hourly, and I cover all expenses. Taxis when they go places (or I would cover driving expenses if she drove), food and activities while they are out, an occasional coffee for her, taxis home when she babysits late night. As per local laws, I give her paid vacation, paid sick and holiday leave and I also pay her a fixed weekly rate when we are not here (she cleans and does laundry and waters the plants when we are gone). I don’t necessarily cover food, we don’t eat the same things (different cultures), but I wouldn’t mind if she ate our food or bought a meal while watching my kids. I also give an annual bonus.
ETA: our lady sometimes brings her daughter when she babysits in the evening. She’s a widow, so she doesn’t always have a care solution. She asked me about it when I interviewed her and of course I was fine with it. My kids love playing with her since she’s a little bit older than they are.
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Working for family is tricky! One thing to consider is that they might prefer to pay an employee rather than family if they are going to pay the going rate anyway. Also you may want to look into the tax law exceptions for paying family members for childcare. There may be some sort of exceptions that benefit you both without pay having to be off the books, but I’m not sure- just a thought to look into. Other things I’d consider: would you be willing to nanny for a non family member to make more money? Sometimes thinking through those types of alternatives helps me decide whether a situation works for me or not.
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I’d reach out to a local nanny agency for guidance. Here in nyc-ish area, pay is probably 17-22 for two kids per hour. Two weeks paid vacation (one of nanny’s choosing,
One of family’s) all federal holidays and sick time (2-5 days). Bonus is typically a weeks pay. If I were you, even though it is family, I’d have a written contract. Also you’ll need to figure out a plan if your kids are sick; what happens to their kids?
Outline expectations: laundry for kids only, shopping, cleaning? This could be a great arrangement for everyone, or it could ruin relationships bc significant amounts of money is involved.
I typically don’t provide food but they are welcome to the fridge/pantry. They should maybe do a small stipend for gas and sundries for the kids snacks if you are at activities.
You and they need to decide on or off the books. If you are off the books and hurt yourself on the job you can’t claim short term disability, etc. if you are on the books your take home might be lower and there’s more leg work for them but it’s all above board.
Good luck. -
OK. so our nanny is a family friend, so kind of the same boat as you. I know we got a great deal with her, so I try to do extra when I can because we couldn't swing a lot more.
So I'm in the midwest and not in a super large city. We pay her $150 a week. I have asked her how much more a week she would charge for another kid, it would be in the $50-$75 range.
Because of where I work, I have a week or more off around christmas, so she gets paid for that week, and then we try to coordinate our vacation weeks, but if it doesn't work out then we take separate weeks.
As far as pay, she claims it as income, but since she's older and already drawing social security it doesn't effect her taxes and we still get to claim the childcare credit.
As far as food she can eat whatever at our house, but usually brings her own. Sometimes she takes our son out for a kids meal and she won't let me pay her back for it. I have memberships for her so she can take our son to the zoo and the family center, I have bought punchcards so she can take him to other facilities.
We give her a bonus at the end of the year. and we always get her at least a $50 gift card for her birthday.
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I live in the SF Bay Area, which is considerably more expensive. We have a nanny who takes care of my two sons and we pay her $25/hr. We've had her for 5 years going on 6.
She doesn't drive, but takes the bus, so we do purchase an unlimited bus pass for her. Nannies that drive in our area get a stipend for gas.
We also provide at least 2 weeks of vacation per year with one week her choice. I say at least 2 because we usually take anywhere between 3-4 weeks of vacation per year and we pay her for that time. She also gets one week of sick days which she uses for doctor/dentist appts.
We also pay her 2 weeks pay for her Xmas bonus and also an additional 1/2 weeks pay for her birthday and random extra small bonuses/gift cards throughout the year. And, sometimes she takes the boys out to lunch or some activity and we give her extra money for that and let her keep whatever is leftover.
We value our nanny a lot and I know we provide her more than the average, but it's really difficult to find good, reliable, trustworthy nannies and she is amazing. She's become part of our family and all of us (kids and parents) love her.
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@threeplusme: when we had a full time nanny (well, even now when we have a part time sitter that does after school pickup), we paid $3 more an hour when she had both girls. So if her base rate was $16, then we paid $19 for 2 kids if she had them together.
Our full time nanny got 2 official weeks paid vacation but the contract also stipulated that any days we went out of town were also paid for her, so she ended up getting about 3.5 paid weeks a year. She once asked for another weeks vacation on top of that, and we gave her the week but unpaid. She had 5 paid sick days, and 1 week's pay holiday bonus. I think that's pretty standard in our town. Her only duties were to do the kid's laundry 1x a week during nap time. I didn't expect her to prepare food or do anything else other than really engage the kiddos and keep them busy and on schedule.
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I just posted a position on Care.com for a nanny. Some nannies wanted mileage reimbursement. Not quite the same as gas money, but still related to your car.
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