Nanny pay

minirella · August 2014

Can I ask how those of you with a nanny figured out how much to pay. I know it varies by location but I don't know how to determine what is reasonable. I don't know anyone with a nanny so when I ask friends IRL, I get mixed responses regarding offering an hourly rate or negotiating a monthly salary since it will be long-term. With our sitters, we offer a $50 daily flat rate whether it is for 4 hours or 8 hours but they are short-term, as needed.

Full-time daycare ranges from $685 (cheapest) to $850 (most expensive) where I live and home daycare providers are from $25-30 a day but an infant spot, let alone 2 (I'm having twins), are hard to come by.

Thanks.

KayteeGee · August 2014

Hmmm.. I asked around, but maybe check out Care.com for your area and see what nannies are asking for? We found that it was very consistent with what our friends were paying.

Shelleybell · August 2014

definitely look on care.com - we pay $15/hour for our nanny.

mommaoftrips · August 2014

When I first posted for my nanny - I asked 2 dollars more than minimum wage as I had seen a week earlier someone else with triplets advertising for someone to work at minimum wage. However, once I started interviewing all the good candidates were very clear with me that my idea of wages was WAY below standard (like you I had no friends in the area who could give me an idea).
My suggestion would be is to get idea of what your range for hourly rate would be (low and highest and post somewhere in the middle to lower side). See what happens, anyone interested and worthwhile will let you know what they think they are worth and it's up to you to decide if you can do it or not. I hope this made sense. GL

minirella · August 2014

We live in a town with a large university, so I'm assuming I'll get plenty of college-aged girls that would probably work for a lower wage. I'm just not sure if they would be able to handle twins. I've thought about maybe hiring 2 of them but I'm not sure if that would be worth my while. One of our regular sitters is a university student. While she is great with my daughter, I find that when we've shared her with another family, she seems to be overwhelmed.

I did look on care.com but it gives me a dollar range to select...I wonder if that is because I just registered for the basic/limited account.

djm31012 · August 2014

Where I live (HCOL) its btwn $15-18/hr. It depends on number of children and their experience, in my opinion. I think care.com is good for a range, and then go with where you are comfortable. We went the daycare route for 2 reasons. 1) I had 1 week to find a nanny and of the 4 I interviewed none were a fit 2) given our hours, it would have cost us $4k/month and while we can swing it, we did not think it was necessary for sub par care. We are very happy with our daycare and will not be making a switch at this point, though a good nanny is much more convenient in my opinion and would have been worth the cost, had we found someone we loved.

emberlee3 · August 2014

I live in MCOL. I pay $12/hr for an easy 2 yo plus drop off/pick up of kindergartner. Twin infants would be around $15/hr in my area.

minirella · August 2014

We live in Texas. Compared to other states, I think we're probably at low-medium cost of living.

@librarychica, thanks, that does give a starting/reference point.

My husband's co-worker apparently has a nanny. They live in the smaller town over but pay $250/wk for 3.5 month old twins.

Do all of you report wages to IRS? Does anyone pay under the table? I really hadn't thought about that aspect but I do have an accountant acquaintance that I can ask about ramifications.

PaulandPregnantChelsea · August 2014

I also live in a college town, but I didn't want to have to coordinate two nanny schedules around their classes.

We put an ad on care.com and got a lot of responses. We are offering $15/hour even though care.com notes that babysitters in our area make an average of $10/hour. Most candidates seem more than okay with $15/hour, but one woman said she needed to make at least $17/hour. It really depends on their experience level and what you're comfortable with.

Example: The woman who requested $17/hour has been a professional nanny for 11 years and that is what she bases her salary on. Another young woman applied who also works retail part-time, and she was thrilled with the $15/hour wage. However, she canceled our interview 3 hours before via text message because she wasn't feeling well... Not super profesh. They need to really want the job, so you might want to pay competitively to get someone reliable.

We are offering a minimum of 5 hour shifts, but we only need help 3 days/week. We're going to use intuit online to pay the nanny and get all the appropriate taxes taken care of. It ends up costing about $22/month for that service and so far it's the cheapest I've seen. Technically if you're going to pay your nanny more than $1,900 (I think), you need to pay taxes. But then it's tax deductible at the end of the year!

MickeyM04 · August 2014

I think it totally depends on geography. In our suburb, we were looking for a nanny for DS and DD when I was pregnant, and most people wanted basically $800 a week for 55 hours, so whatever that translates to. Close to $15/hr I guess?. My friend is in another suburb and they are getting slim pickings offering $15 an hour, most want closer to $18 an hour. It also depends on whether you pay taxes or not, how much vacation/sick days you offer, etc. You could probably get away with paying less for example, if you offered great benefits. But most people can't give their nannies like 4 weeks vacation, you know? Agree that looking on care.com at nannies in your area would be a good idea. Especially if you can't ask your friends.

TheBorg7of9 · August 2014

minirella said:
We live in Texas. Compared to other states, I think we're probably at low-medium cost of living.
@librarychica, thanks, that does give a starting/reference point.
My husband's co-worker apparently has a nanny. They live in the smaller town over but pay $250/wk for 3.5 month old twins.
Do all of you report wages to IRS? Does anyone pay under the table? I really hadn't thought about that aspect but I do have an accountant acquaintance that I can ask about ramifications.

I pay the taxes and report to the IRS. I told all nanny applicants I would be doing this. Not only is it the right thing to do, but I am a tax lawyer and would lose my bar license if I were caught. Also, there are benefits. For example, I get a tax credit for child care. Also the nanny is able to have proof of income for applying for apartments and insurance. She would get unemployment if we had to lay her off. I'm sure there are other reasons too. Like she is paying into social security for her retirement, etc.

KayteeGee · August 2014

We have just made an offer to a nanny, we are paying taxes. Our candidate is trying to earn residency for school, she needs proof and her paystubs will be proof.

PSU_Texan · August 2014

I'm in Houston too. We pay $13-14/hour. With all taxes in, it comes out to $42.6K per year. She works 55 hours/week and we pay 52 weeks of the year. She's been with us for over three years. When she started, we paid $11.50/hour and she had never nannied before.

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