What's fair pay for a vacation nanny?

Rose.9.6.03

We're brainstorming ideas for vacation. My new idea is to go to Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica and stay there for the whole trip and bring a nanny. The idea would be that we'd alternate mornings and afternoons with her (she gets the kids the first morning and has her afternoon free, we'd have the kids the next morning and have our afternoon free) and she'd do a couple evenings, so that we could go out for a nice dinner or something. We'd be able to use FF miles to get her (and us, as well) down there and we'd pay for her room/board (I think we'd get a condo or a two bedroom suite). The nanny we'd use has two other PT jobs she'd give up for the week (she's a lifeguard and does fitness assessments at a gym). I think we'd do a Saturday to Saturday trip.

Any thoughts on what's reasonable to pay her? We pay her $10/hour right now - if that helps with anything. I'm just having a hard time coming up with what would be a good amount of cash considering that she's getting a free vacation (well, at least a partial one), but also that she wouldn't be making other income that week and that she'd be working for us probably 5/6 hours per day on average.

Jessarella

Considering she is getting a free vacation, and $10.00 an hour x 5.5 hours a day x 7 days =$385.00. She is missing out on her other jobs and income, but she is getting a free vacation. I would  pay her between $400.00-500.00.

 

cands

A friend of mine was a nanny a few years ago for a really wealthy family, and they took her along on vacations all the time.  The arrangement she had was that they paid for all the trip costs and then also paid her the same hourly rate for work during the vacation that they paid while they were home. 

I don't know if that's normal or not.

ChiBride2007

I've done this a couple of times, but I was always a student so I wasn't missing out on other income. The family paid for all of my expenses and I didn't get anything in addition to that. I had one full day free, would hang out with the parents and kids during the other days and would have the kids by myself in the evening/night. I also had my own room. I loved the family and the kids so I wasn't worried about the pay, but I think the above suggestions are good ones. I would probably pay $10/hr for the times that she has the kids by herself or set an arbitrary - we'll pay you $75/day plus all expenses. Honestly, see her reaction when you talk to her. She might not want to use her vacation time from her other jobs and this might be a big sacrifice or she might be thrilled to go to CR and be happy with less than you would expect.

malex

I would also make sure that you either pay for all her meals, or give her a stipend for food, in addition to whatever hourly wage you agree on (or build that into the daily wage).

I went to Manuel Antonio several years ago - it is awesome.  You will have an amazing time!