MoMs with nannies come in

babydontforget

I have found a nanny that I like (yeah!), and I'm now working on putting together a contract. I'm struggling with how to arrange vacation time. Here's why: Through my job I get a good amount of vacation time (about a month). I understand the standard vacation arrangement with a nanny to be two weeks of PTO; also I fully expect to pay her for the holidays that I also have off for work--Christmas, Memorial Day, etc. So what to do for the extra two weeks that I have off, and for which I won't need the nanny? On one hand, I don't really want to pay for two extra weeks when she isn't working. On the other, I feel that it's inconsiderate to arrange things such that she has two unpaid weeks per year; it just seems ugly to me.

Thoughts? If you get more vacation time that your nanny does, how do you manage the extra time? My husband's recommendation is that we adjust her hourly rate accordingly, paying her slightly less per hour so that we're not paying for those days, but she's still getting paid consistently. Does this seem appropriate?

AND ANOTHER QUESTION: Do you offer your nanny a salary/rate, and then pay taxes in addition to that? (So, for example, $X per hour, plus you're responsible for taxes.) Or do you offer your nanny a salary/rate that includes taxes? ($X per hour, out of which you take care of taxes.)

MoMandA

My nanny has two weeks of paid vacation a year. One is the week between Christmas and New Years and the other one is any week of her choice after she had been with us for 6 months. She has to give us a month's notice to use it. 

Watch out. Our first nanny quit after 4 months and got her two weeks of PTO out of us first.

We also pay her for all State Holidays that fall on her regular work day.

My nanny has an hourly rate and her taxes come out of that just like any other employee's check. We also have to pay employer taxes in addition to that. If she works a second over our agreed to schedule we pay her cash.

twinsmom23

Did you ask her what she expects or wants in the way of vacation?

babydontforget

Yes. She was vague--she said, "Different families do it different ways..." 

Joeblack:

Did you ask her what she expects or wants in the way of vacation?

txdaisygal

We sorta deal with this. DH's parents come to visit for a week at a time, and my mom is a school teacher and will want to spend more time with the kids when she has time off of school. What we told our nanny is that on those weeks, we would ask her to be available, sort of "on call" during her regular work hours. That way if something comes up with our parents, or they feel that they need help, she's available to come out. We still pay her her full rate for those weeks, but she can't go anywhere since she has to be available and all. 

 

ahava2005

If you take a vacation and don't need her, that's your issue and you should continue to pay her.  But honestly, we never end up using our vacation...those first few years are rough and traveling with twins for extended periods is difficult.  Our vacation days end up being used as random personal days and sick time.

AS for your second question, our nanny gets paid x/hour plus we're responsible for taking out the tax, so it ends up being about 30% higher.  That's the correct way to do it.  Doing it the other way short changes her. 

monkski

we have that same situation with vacation and I'm actually going to have her still work while I'm home and that way I can get out and do a few things on my time off. I may give her a couple days off that week as a christmas gift (it's the week between christmas and new years). We pay our nanny an hourly rate and then we pay taxes above and beyond that. we are covering all the taxes for her as part of the deal, so are not deducting from her paycheck.