Hiring help - what would you pay

[robsmom]

My husband and I are thinking about hiring some help as life seems to be getting busier and busier all the time. What do you think a good estimate of what I should offer to pay. My problem is that I want an everything person. Here is what I am thinking about:

I need someone to come to my house 3 or 4 times a week. 15- 20 hrs
I need cleaning - currently have people who come in for the basics, can keep that or merge with this job if the person wants it.
I need housekeeping - run dishwasher, put dishes away. do the none basics periodicaly like clean pantry or fridge.
I need a companion/driver - someone to check in on my father-in-law that lives with us and take him to occassional dr's appointments or to the bank. he needs no nursing care, can be home alone, he just needs someone to talk to and someone that can drive.
I would like someone that can supervise/chauffer my son. He is 12 and can be home alone and does not need a babysitter but an adult that would support him in starting homework etc. What he really needs is to be picked up from afterschool activites some days and go to the othrodontist once a month.
I would love this person to cook a meal once in a while but that is lowest on list.

So in summary, I guess I am a working wife and mother that needs a good wife! I am thinking young grandmother type but a responsible college student might work. I want to spend as much of my home time as I can being Mom to my son and slow our home life down a little. I am thinking maybe $15 or $20a hr but is that too little since she (could be he) needs their own car.

Sorry this is so long but would love opinions and thoughts.

 

[Marionnette]

My husband and I are thinking about hiring some help as life seems to be getting busier and busier all the time. What do you think a good estimate of what I should offer to pay. My problem is that I want an everything person. Here is what I am thinking about:

I need someone to come to my house 3 or 4 times a week. 15- 20 hrs
I need cleaning - currently have people who come in for the basics, can keep that or merge with this job if the person wants it.
I need housekeeping - run dishwasher, put dishes away. do the none basics periodicaly like clean pantry or fridge.
I need a companion/driver - someone to check in on my father-in-law that lives with us and take him to occassional dr's appointments or to the bank. he needs no nursing care, can be home alone, he just needs someone to talk to and someone that can drive.
I would like someone that can supervise/chauffer my son. He is 12 and can be home alone and does not need a babysitter but an adult that would support him in starting homework etc. What he really needs is to be picked up from afterschool activites some days and go to the othrodontist once a month.
I would love this person to cook a meal once in a while but that is lowest on list.

So in summary, I guess I am a working wife and mother that needs a good wife! I am thinking young grandmother type but a responsible college student might work. I want to spend as much of my home time as I can being Mom to my son and slow our home live down a little. I am thinking maybe $15 or $20a hr but is that too little since she (could be he) needs their own car.

Sorry this is so long but would love opinions and thoughts.

No full-time college student is going to have the time to be able to do all of that. And it sounds like way more than 15-20 hours per week.

You might want to consider looking into an agency that handles this type of help. They can not only give you an idea of what it would cost in South Jersey, but they can also send you bonded, insured and capable candidates for the job.

And most nanny/housekeepers/au pairs/elder companions would expect you to provide the car, the car insurance, upkeep and gasoline.

 

[robsmom]

No full-time college student is going to have the time to be able to do all of that. And it sounds like way more than 15-20 hours per week.

You might want to consider looking into an agency that handles this type of help. They can not only give you an idea of what it would cost in South Jersey, but they can also send you bonded, insured and capable candidates for the job.

And most nanny/housekeepers/au pairs/elder companions would expect you to provide the car, the car insurance, upkeep and gasoline.

Thanks. these are great questions/ideas. It does sound like an awful lot when I put in in writing like that. Could explain why my husband and I are feeling overwhelmed. Agree that 15-20 hrs is probably too many for a college student. I was thinking that I would start with an agency and I can provide a car. I think i need to just talk/write this all out and figure out what is really important to us. I want to hire the best right of person (i.e. do i really need a housekeeper or do I want a companion/elder care). Some of this is not as much as it seems. For example my father-in-law only has about 1 appt a month same with my son.

 

[happily single]

Unless NJ has a higher cost of living than the rest of the country, I was thinking between $10-12 per hour.

This would be perfect for a recently retired type person or someone looking to make some extra money and doesn't have kids at home.

I think that 10-15 hours per week is also perfect. Maybe 2p.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Then you can just try to schedule dr appointments for that time frame.

 

[akcire]

My husband and I are thinking about hiring some help as life seems to be getting busier and busier all the time. What do you think a good estimate of what I should offer to pay. My problem is that I want an everything person. Here is what I am thinking about:

I need someone to come to my house 3 or 4 times a week. 15- 20 hrs
I need cleaning - currently have people who come in for the basics, can keep that or merge with this job if the person wants it.
I need housekeeping - run dishwasher, put dishes away. do the none basics periodicaly like clean pantry or fridge.
I need a companion/driver - someone to check in on my father-in-law that lives with us and take him to occassional dr's appointments or to the bank. he needs no nursing care, can be home alone, he just needs someone to talk to and someone that can drive.
I would like someone that can supervise/chauffer my son. He is 12 and can be home alone and does not need a babysitter but an adult that would support him in starting homework etc. What he really needs is to be picked up from afterschool activites some days and go to the othrodontist once a month.
I would love this person to cook a meal once in a while but that is lowest on list.

So in summary, I guess I am a working wife and mother that needs a good wife! I am thinking young grandmother type but a responsible college student might work. I want to spend as much of my home time as I can being Mom to my son and slow our home live down a little. I am thinking maybe $15 or $20a hr but is that too little since she (could be he) needs their own car.

Sorry this is so long but would love opinions and thoughts.

I did a similar job as a college student. You just need to have set hours and advertise. I would think in NJ you are right for your price range.

I would suggest looking for someone who was a full time nanny in NY or NJ that may now have a child of their own and want to make some money. Someone with 1 child could easily do the things you need, and if they have previous experience working with a family they will understand the obligation.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

If you want someone to take on the responsibility of taking your loved ones around in the car, you should go through an agency. I am sure the person you hire will not want to take on the liability of an accident while driving with them in the car. Where as if you went with an agency, the agency takes on that liability instead of the individual.. Also, if they were to use their own car, they would have to take out business insurance and that jacks their rates up. I know you said you can provide the car, personally, I think you should. I would not want my college student or my mother driving someone around in their car and be open for a law suit in the event of an accident..
Especially my college student.. then that suit would be directed at me since I insure her car

 

[disneyofcourse]

I did a similar job about 8 years ago in a similar cost of living area as yours. They provided a car (gas, insurance included) and my hourly pay was around the $20/hr range except no cleaning was involved. I did organizing a few times and that was at a different pay rate. I think your looking at way more hours of work than your thinking. I was taking part time college classes at the time and probably worked around 30 hours a week.

 

[twinkles]

Hi:

I live in Southern, NJ. I can provide some websites that you can post/search for people who would fit the description you are looking for.

Care.com and Sittercity.com. You can do a background check, email communication is secure and you can do the basic screening.

I found my present job through Sittercity.com. I am a housemanager and my salary is $17/hr.

It will depend on who you find it's difficult to find good/reliable people. I wish you luck in your search.

If I can answer any other questions let me know.

 

[Skye23]

Being partially disabled I currently employ a local girl to do light housekeeping for me. She does stuff like vaccuming, scooping the litter box, dusting, dishes, organizing stuff, mopping the floor etc. She is willing to do laundry, clean bathrooms etc but I don't make her scrub anything on her hands and knees (ie not light housekeeping). She'll also help me with meal prep (chopping vegetables etc. Currently we pay her $10 an hour although the terms are a bit fluid. If I run out of things to do in a day I send her home early and pay her for her full shift. If she feels she needs a few minutes extra to finish a task or she sees something she thinks needs done that I haven't asked her to do, she does it without charging extra. This is her first job but she had experience cleaning her parents and grandparents house and caring for her grandmother (she's in her 20's). She also has experience being a little disabled having recovered from a pretty horrific car accident when younger. Over the time we've become friends too, although I try to make sure we keep business and friendship separate enough that nobody is being taken advantage of.

When I interviewed people for the job I got wage requests from $10 - $25. The more medical care you wanted, the more floors you wanted scrubbed on their hands and knees, and the more they had to drive you places - the higher the price.

 

[mjkacmom]

Unless NJ has a higher cost of living than the rest of the country, I was thinking between $10-12 per hour.

This would be perfect for a recently retired type person or someone looking to make some extra money and doesn't have kids at home.

I think that 10-15 hours per week is also perfect. Maybe 2p.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Then you can just try to schedule dr appointments for that time frame.

NJ has one of the highest COL in the country, and the second highest median salary. $10 - $12 an hour is what you pay a 15 year old to watch TV while your kids sleep.

 

[mistysue]

If I were in that situation, I would wonder if you could hire a housekeeper 2 days- like on Monday and Thursday. On that day they could take care of dishes, laundry, cook dinner, pack a couple lunches, help with homework, talk to dad for a while...
If they did enough around the house, would you suddenly have time for the once a month appointments? It might save you a lot of money to not have to cover the driving.

We were going insane without our cleaning service- I thought we needed help with everything! But as soon as somebody was vacuuming and wiping things off I suddenly had a bunch of time open up for the little things.

 

[robsmom]

Thank you to everyone who has replied. This is what I really love about the the DIS. Aside from all the great Disney tips, it has become a place that people can just bounce thoughts and ideas off a great group of people. I appreciate the links and have already been looking through care.com. I am encouraged that i may be able to find a good portion of what I need. Thinking about it, I do really need to think about liability and whether I want someone to drive my loved ones. For now, I think having someone just be in the house doing housekeeping/cooking/organizing a few hrs a day 3-4 days a week is the best answer. Right now the driving is not a huge part of the issue, but it is the area of need that I think will grow. We have a county service for taking elderly to doctors appointments that i don't use and probably should. I also have a mother who will chauffeur my son (or my father-in-law) if I ask. I try not to take too much advantage of her, but certainly trust her with my loved ones more than anyone else! Thanks again to everyone. you are the best.

 

[ssawka]

Unless NJ has a higher cost of living than the rest of the country, I was thinking between $10-12 per hour.

This would be perfect for a recently retired type person or someone looking to make some extra money and doesn't have kids at home.

I think that 10-15 hours per week is also perfect. Maybe 2p.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Then you can just try to schedule dr appointments for that time frame.

This seems quite low to me. One other thing to remember is that if you go with an Agency, you will probably pay more since the assumption of most individuals in these types of jobs is that their income will not be taxed. I'm not saying that's right, I'm just saying that is the expectations of many.

 

[okeydokey]

I suggest an agency also, just for the tax purpose. If you employ someone, you need to follow all the rules about taking out taxes etc. If not, you could be in some trouble. We are not talking about a teenage babysitter once a week but an actual 20 hour a week employee.

 

[mjkacmom]

I also have a mother who will chauffeur my son (or my father-in-law) if I ask. I try not to take too much advantage of her, but certainly trust her with my loved ones more than anyone else! Thanks again to everyone. you are the best.

As a mom of many overscheduled kids, can you carpool? I can't remember the last time I drove one of my children to an activity, or picked up, without schlepping others kids, as well. We have dance 7 days a week, soccer, 7 days a week - no way I'd be able to get all of the kids where they need to be by myself.

 

[woodkins]

Unless NJ has a higher cost of living than the rest of the country, I was thinking between $10-12 per hour.

This would be perfect for a recently retired type person or someone looking to make some extra money and doesn't have kids at home.

I think that 10-15 hours per week is also perfect. Maybe 2p.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Then you can just try to schedule dr appointments for that time frame.

NJ has one of the highest COL in the country, and the second highest median salary. $10 - $12 an hour is what you pay a 15 year old to watch TV while your kids sleep.

As pp said, I pay a teenager $10 per hour to watch my 9 yr old dd, so there is no way you will get an adult to do all of those duties for that price.

I think you need a housekeeper more than a nanny or caregiver. A nanny/caregiver is there to take care of a child/elder not to cook, clean, organize etc. A housekeeper can do all of that.

I also suggest going through an agency as the people will have been background checked, and they will handle the tax situation etc.

 

[scrapquitler]

My husband and I are thinking about hiring some help as life seems to be getting busier and busier all the time. What do you think a good estimate of what I should offer to pay. My problem is that I want an everything person. Here is what I am thinking about:

I need someone to come to my house 3 or 4 times a week. 15- 20 hrs
I need cleaning - currently have people who come in for the basics, can keep that or merge with this job if the person wants it.
I need housekeeping - run dishwasher, put dishes away. do the none basics periodicaly like clean pantry or fridge.
I need a companion/driver - someone to check in on my father-in-law that lives with us and take him to occassional dr's appointments or to the bank. he needs no nursing care, can be home alone, he just needs someone to talk to and someone that can drive.
I would like someone that can supervise/chauffer my son. He is 12 and can be home alone and does not need a babysitter but an adult that would support him in starting homework etc. What he really needs is to be picked up from afterschool activites some days and go to the othrodontist once a month.
I would love this person to cook a meal once in a while but that is lowest on list.

So in summary, I guess I am a working wife and mother that needs a good wife! I am thinking young grandmother type but a responsible college student might work. I want to spend as much of my home time as I can being Mom to my son and slow our home life down a little. I am thinking maybe $15 or $20a hr but is that too little since she (could be he) needs their own car.

Sorry this is so long but would love opinions and thoughts.

Keep in mind that if you hire someone directly, you'll also be responsible for all the employment taxes (ss, withholding, unemployment insurance, etc). If you hire thru an agency, that will probably be handled by the agency.

You might want to hire a separate caregiver for your FIL than for in your own home. Here there is an agency called something like "Companions and homemakers" that does exactly what you are looking for for your FIL.

 

[njmom47]

NJ has one of the highest COL in the country, and the second highest median salary. $10 - $12 an hour is what you pay a 15 year old to watch TV while your kids sleep.

My thoughts exactly!
DH and I used to joke we needed a wife when the kids were younger too. Never enough time in the day to get things done, and we were always scattered here and there.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

I needed to hire someone to help my parents in their home. We went through an agency for a year, the gal got $10 an hour, and the agency got $9.50 - wow. When you sign up they stipulate that you cannot hire away their caregiver for 6 months. I can see why. After a year we thought - wow -this gal deserves more and we should just employ her.

Hello Nanny Tax. Although I am all for paying taxes, it would be impossile for my parents to jump through the tax hoops; I didn't even try. Quarterly reports to the IRS - there was soooo much more to it than I ever imagined. SO - we had to hire a service to do that. Want to guess how much you can legally pay any unrelated worker in your home (or outside for lawn care, etc.) per year before you are required to pay a share of their taxes and do all the filing, etc.???? For an entire year - it was in 2010 - guess - come on - guess - we are talking a whole year here. $1700 - I was shocked!

They make it so hard to try to keep aging parents in their home where (in my parents' case) they would do so much better than an assited living.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

wow-I am an official thread killer