STMs w/ Nanny or babysitter - How much do you pay/hour?

lolob45 · September 2013

I have officially started my nanny hunt. My cousin and I are planning to nanny share 2 days/week (at one of our homes) and have the nanny alone at each of our homes 2 days/ week, so she'll be working 4 days per week with a varying schedule of 7am - 5pm and 8am - 2pm. My mom is going to watch our LO the remaining 2 days.

My cousin voiced that she did not want to pay more than $10/hour so we would pay the nanny $20/hour on the days she is watching our children together & $10/hour the days she has each of our children alone.... overall she would net close to $500 per week.

I'm curious, what do you pay your nannies/babysitters per hour? I am a little worried our rate is low but quite honestly don't know how much more we both can budge.

NOTE: We plan to pay under the table cash & we live in a suburb of Los Angeles.

BebeOnBoard · September 2013

I'll be paying ours around $4 an hour. In their home.

sooner1981 · September 2013

We pay 600 bucks a week for two kids and about 45 hours. I think your rate plan seems fair to all.

PharmDMom · September 2013

I live in an moderate COL area and I pay my sitter $9 per hour for my 2.5 year old DD. My sitter watches DD in her home (along with my sitter's own 3 year old DD). We paid $10 per hour until DD was over a year then renegotiated. For 2 kids we will be paying $15 per hour. I only work 2 or 3 days per week and work evenings so we average paying the sitter for anywhere between 10-20 hours per week. Not sure if that helps you or not!

CousinVicki · September 2013

seems way, way low. 10 an hour is basically babysitter pay-- a teen watching your kid for a couple of hours. but a nanny taking care of an infant (or two??)? you two better budge a little more. you get what you pay for.

carawasa · September 2013

maybe I'm naive but holy shit that's a ton of money!

Mama2be12345 · September 2013

We are starting our nanny search, we only need the nanny one day a week from 7-3:30, hoping to pay between $75-100 per day so around $10/hour.

trackgirlparis · September 2013

When I was a nanny for an infant, I worked 7am to usually 6pm, five days a week and made $15/hr...pretty standard in the area I was in.

shelliescove3 · September 2013

That seems reasonable, when I return to work we will have to get a live in nanny (we both work shift work) and it will cost in the ball park of 1700 a month ish

dlphndoc · September 2013

I'm a SAHM but have been using a part-time nanny while I'm on bed rest. We pay her $15/hour. A full-time nanny in my area runs around $25/hour plus benefits.

CousinVicki · September 2013

BebeOnBoard said:

I'll be paying ours around $4 an hour. In their home.

FOUR DOLLARS AN HOUR????

kaswanson · September 2013

It probably depends on your area, it seems a little low to me, too. I nannied for a bit and it's hard because I had to pay through the nose in taxes. About 15% federal income tax, then another 15% on top of it for "self employment tax." Then any state taxes on top of it. It was shocking how much that lowers the income! So... $500 somehow becomes more like $350 per week. Maybe it is just my income situation or state, but it was really disappointing to realize that one!

Baby0925 · September 2013

Well here's a good one for you ladies .

When we went to visit my aunt in Texas she was babysitting 3 little girls that day and she only charged $15 a day!! Hours from 6am to 5 pm!!
Ages were
2,3,5 years old.

AlwaysForgetful · September 2013

Depends if you are paying the daycare rate or nanny. Nanny costs more. A sitter should be less. Around here, daycare is 2.50 an hour per child based on full time. Most SAHM charge about that to.

As far as "you get what you pay for" that is not always true. One of the better day cares around here was busted last year for excessive yelling at kids and just general bad behavior. Sometimes you get a mom who has all her kids in school and is just looking for something to do to make a little pocket money. Just because she may be cheaper does not mean she would not take care of the babies.

I use to babysit full time. I had 3 at home then (so 5 kids at any given point, 6 till my half day child went to class) They were great playmates for my younger kids and I still miss them. Their mother and I keep in contact on FB. The job ended because they moved out of state. I was paid $125 a week and I covered food.

KimCousino · September 2013

BebeOnBoard said:
I'll be paying ours around $4 an hour. In their home.

Me too! I know our sitter is the cheapest I could find & she is awesome! This includes breakfast & lunch as well.

JenMatt2010 · September 2013

We pay our high school sitter $10 an hour to watch our 2 yo, and by that I mean watch tv after he is already in bed.

I can't even fathom paying $2.50 or $4 an hour for daily care for my CHILD. Holy cow where do you all live??!!

TKtravels · September 2013

I'm a FTM and haven't yet been on the hiring end of things, but when I was completing my undergraduate degree, I was a FT nanny and made between $11-13/hour under the table. This was in Chicago's north shore area from 2005-2008 for two school-age children (3-6/7 PM M-F unless it was a school holiday or the summer, then I was with them 7AM - 7PM M-F.

Alexandrap · September 2013

Completely depends on what part of the country you live in. In the northeast that's a bit on the low side. If it were just you two kids between $15-20 is the usual fee around here. For 4 kids (possibly two infants) that seems low, I'd probably offer closer $30-35 an hour. Now these are fees appropriate to a fully certified and trained nanny. If you're looking to pay less look into a babysitter (college students are generally less expensive but also have less availability), just remember like pp said you get what you pay for.

KimCousino · September 2013

I live in MI. I wasn't going to argue with the sitters rate, but at Christmas we do give her a "bonus" or go in on a nice gift with another family. If we get a sitter for a night out obviously we pay more.

hamlett17 · September 2013

I was a full time nanny in NJ & made $500/wk but that was over 5 yrs ago. After that I returned to college & babysat part-time in NC & I made between $10-12/hr.