What do you pay your nanny?

[Mamadis]

I have 3 children and live in Texas. We have always had an au pair until this year. In the past we have participated in a program where there was a set salary per week. All three of our children are in school until 3:30. Our nanny does a few extra things like helping with the laundry and the grocery shopping for me.We have recently hired a live out nanny. She asked for a rate of $ 15/ hr. We agreed on this and agreed to pay her when we went on vacation. ( We are generally out of town 3 weeks out of the year.) If she chose to take time off on certain days or for vacation outside of the 3 weeks we are gone, we told her she would not be paid for those days. We also offered to pay her for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's day. Other holidays such as President's day , MLK, etc could be taken off, but would not be paid days as I work these days and would have to make other arrangements for child care. I have asked her to keep track of her hours on a daily basis so that we can pay her the appropiate amount each week. ( We have asked her to work from 12-6 daily, but sometimes she leaves at 5:30 if I get home early) She keeps on listing her hours as 12-6. She called me today about working on Monday and seemed put off when I told her that she would not be paid for it if she decided she wanted to take it off. She has also been upset when I have asked her to keep track of her exact hours ie if she leaves at 5:30 she puts down she worked until 5:30 rather that 6.( She usually asks to leave early, but there are things she can do until 6) I think I have been fair about things. What do you all do with your child care provider? What benefits do you give them and what kind of vacation? I want to be fair with her, but she does not seem to be happy with these terms. If these are not reasonable or standard I will change them as I want to be fair to her.Also what do you give them for their birthdays and Christmas? I gave her $ 100 gift certificate for Christmas which I thought was nice since she had only worked for me for 6 weeks at that time, but she did not thank me for it so I got the impression she felt it should have been more. I have heard some people say a week's salary, but $ 500 for Chistmas and her birthday seems excessive to me as I don't even spend that on my husband's gifts.Thanks in advance.

 

[fireflymedic]

wow I want to be your nanny. Does she have a degree in teaching or child care or nursing or anything? If not I would think $15hr is fair. My mom is my nanny so not much help hear.

But I would not have any one around my children I felt was "unhappy"

If she asks to leave early she should clock out IMHO, if you say "you can go home if you want to" maybe maybe not. Just make her stay till 6 if that will make her happy.

Good luck, but I would keep an eye out for someone else

 

[tartemis]

We were probably more generous than most people with our nanny, but because she was looking after the most important thing in my life, I figured this was one area that I wouldn't want to skimp on.
We recently let her go with the birth of our second child (DH has decided to stay home with our girls), but prior to that, here were are arrangments (we live in Chicago):
-- we paid her a salary net of taxes of $14/hour to look after 1 child. So her actual take home salary was closer to $15/hour.
--we guaranteed her 45 hours per week with all federal holidays off and 2 weeks vacation. We paid her even when she didn't work due to us going on vacation or me just wanting to play hooky and spend an afternoon with DD she was paid anyway.
-- we gave her two weeks salary as a Christmas bonus, plus I bought her a very expensive handbag as a gift.

We also didn't have her do any housework or errands. I wanted all of her attention focused on my DD and didn't want her to worry about any other stuff.

Personally, I think it is unfair not to guarantee hours each work. I know you said that when you come home early that there is other stuff she could do, but I would just let her go and pay her full time anyway.

 

[JUJU814]

I have had a nanny/housekeeper for 6 years now and she is a very important part of our family. She lives out and works four nine hour days per week. Sometimes she is here a little longer. I don't want to say exactly how much I pay her because well, people will think I'm nuts. However, let's just say we live in the northeast and she gets paid well over $20/hr average. (gross) We pay her by the "day". At this point, I give her two weeks vacation. We also give her a really nice christmas gift, birthday etc. Also, sometimes, depending if we had something big go on that year (ie one year we moved and she worked extra etc) I might buy her a plane ticket home or something. I also have a cell phone for her on our family plan and I pay that.

She does all our grocery shopping, laundry, housework. She often picks the kids up from school, helps me bring them to activities etc. ie: i'll be bringing one kid one place and she'll bring one to another.

She "organizes" things. She is a brazilian woman and extremely EXTREMELY a neat freak.

She also cooks dinner most nights that she is here.

I have a busy home business and work "full time" at home. I also enjoy the ability to go to the gym and the salon etc

She stays with the kids when we travel.

She is a single woman in her early 40s with no children and she is just lovely. We love her so much and so do my children.

She is firm and no nonsense, but very nurturing. She truly is "super nanny". LOL

Believe it or not, despite the fact that this woman seems to do EVERYTHING for me, I'm still ridiculously busy. If I didn't have her, we'd have a lot of takeout, piles of laundry, and my house would be filthy because there is no way I would be able to run my business, take good care of the kids and get them to activities and their schools (one school is 40 minutes away) AND keep house.

All good things must come to an end and with our oldest off to college this fall, she will likely only be here one day a week to clean house. Life is going to change big time!

Soooo, we do not do exactly " by the hour" We know our boundaries with each other. She knows her expectations and actually, her standards are higher than mine!!! I don't like to treat her like an "employee" and nitpick over everything. But like I said, we've been together a LONG time and work well together and have a great working relationship.

 

[Mamadis]

Her hours are 12-6 and are guaranteed if she choses to work them. If she works less it is because she has asked to leave early or has arrived late. Though I arrive home before 6 a few times per week, I am still doing paperwork from the day so I can get dinner started while I work. She does do other chores because my children are in school until 3:30 and she wanted more hours per week. The chores were agreed upon beforehand.I appreciate everyone's input as I would like to be fair with her.

 

[RMAMom]

Her hours are 12-6 and are guaranteed if she choses to work them. If she works less it is because she has asked to leave early or has arrived late. Though I arrive home before 6 a few times per week, I am still doing paperwork from the day so I can get dinner started while I work. She does do other chores because my children are in school until 3:30 and she wanted more hours per week. The chores were agreed upon beforehand.I appreciate everyone's input as I would like to be fair with her.

I think this is fair however you mentioned in a previous post that you vacation 3 weeks of the year and you don't pay her. I don't think thats fair at all. I also think she deserves at least one week paid vacation a year and that week should be of her choosing.

 

[nmmom95]

I think this is fair however you mentioned in a previous post that you vacation 3 weeks of the year and you don't pay her. I don't think thats fair at all. I also think she deserves at least one week paid vacation a year and that week should be of her choosing.

OP said they do pay her for their vacations. If she takes off other than these weeks, she is not paid.

 

[dmbfan]

I think this is fair however you mentioned in a previous post that you vacation 3 weeks of the year and you don't pay her. I don't think thats fair at all. I also think she deserves at least one week paid vacation a year and that week should be of her choosing.

I agree. My sister is a Full time Nanny, and if they family goes away, she has the choice of going with them, or getting paid for the full week, as she still needs to pay her bills and so forth. If she chooses to take a week off, than she has the chance of not getting paid. However I do think they still pay her something.

My sister does not get any health benefiits or anything, so everything comes out of what she makes for nannying three kids. I do not know what she makes an hr, but I think she brings home about $600.00 a week and that is M-Thrusday.

 

[Mamadis]

We actually do pay her for the three weeks we are gone. If she asks for additional time outside of those three weeks, at the time of her choosing, she is not paid as we have to arrange and pay for additional child care.

 

[badblackpug]

Do you have a written contract? Considering the "misunderstandings" I think it is a must. That way there can be no question about her time, salary, and for what she is or isn't paid. Of course if you are paying her off the books, then I guess you are pretty much stuck....