Q for Moms with a Nanny

IBackBevo

How much do you pay your nanny hourly if you just have one little one? 

I'm an attorney and going back to work 3 days a week in another couple of weeks.  Originally, DH and I were going to put LO in daycare (and even found one we liked), but he was born early and had IUGR.  Thus, we made the decision to start looking for a nanny to take care of him 2-3 days a week. Here is the rub: I have been looking on care.com and am a little taken aback at some of the hourly rates that are being requested.  I've seen as high as $25 per hour.  Some of them aren't this high (one lady only wanted $10 an hour, thankfully), but it seems like quite a few of them are. One woman told me she wanted a salary of $350 per week to stay with my little one for TWO days a week...and, quite frankly, I was not impressed with her qualifications.  I could understand if this was for multiple children or for a babysitting job (i.e. a one day job) taken on short notice, but for a long-term job, this seems high to me. 

Am I off base?  Let me add that I live in Houston, TX where the cost of living is very low and salaries (even among professionals) tend to be lower than in other parts of the country. Heck, I was actually shocked at how cheap daycare was when we are looking. 

NicoleWI

Around here, most are $10 to $15/hour. 

IBackBevo

Thanks to the above two posters!  That is more consistent with what I was thinking.  We may do something like 2 full days and 3 partial days if we can find a nanny who lives close.

kck329

I also live in Houston, have a preemie, and work 3 days a week. I pay our nanny $10 an hour.

I found her on care.com as well. I found that in order to find someone who was in our budget, I had to hire someone younger than I originally planned. But our nanny is a college grad working on her teach certification and is amazing with my daughter. 

Good luck! 

jldittber

where in houston are you?  i lived in houston when my DS was born.  i had a lady who took care of him in her home, but she only took one at a time and was AMAZING.  i'm still very close to her.  i paid her 150 a week for full time. 

i can share info if your interested, she's in the kingwood area.

IBackBevo

jldittber:

where in houston are you?  i lived in houston when my DS was born.  i had a lady who took care of him in her home, but she only took one at a time and was AMAZING.  i'm still very close to her.  i paid her 150 a week for full time. 

i can share info if your interested, she's in the kingwood area.

Thanks for the offer!  Unfortunately, I'm in the Spring area so that would not work...but that sounds like an amazing situation.

sadie+w

I'm in a LCOL area and $8 - $10 per hour is the norm for 1 LO.

cedenton

We're actually only paying $5/hr ($250/wk - 50 hrs) and we don't live in a super low cost of living area.  I posted what I could pay per month on care.com thinking no one would apply, but had like 25 applicants.  I'm very pleased with our chosen nanny so far, though she's only done a trial run date night.  She starts in a week and a half.

I think the key if you're not paying much is to offer perks...like room and board, or provide food during the day.  We will give ours a Christmas gift, a bonus when I get mine, and I've told her we'll do a performance appraisal in April and discuss a raise then (when I get mine).  I get 11 holidays per year and she'll get all of those paid.  She gets 10 vacation days/yr and 5 sick days, all paid.  Because of my husband's weird schedule there will probably be plenty of time she will get to go home early or be able to come in late.   

I also let her know that there would be opportunities for overtime when I have to travel for work (though my first trip PP she will get paid in comp time).  We've even discussed taking her with us on vacation next year if she's still around and she would get her regular pay, we'd pay for her plane ticket, we'd rent a house so it wouldn't cost more, and she'd get a decent amount of time to herself. 

To answer your question, though, I  think $10-$15/hr is more common for nannies. 

loneybaloney

Our nanny is part time as well, three days per week, and we pay her $14/hour. Essentially, she works 25 hours per week, so her "salary" is $350/week. If she works fewer hours because we get home early, don't need her, etc., I still pay her the entire $350 (her bills don't go away just because my schedule changes). If she works more than the standard 25 hours, we pay her accordingly for the extra hours.I guess Im pretty "liberal" about paying her, but mostly it's because we love her.