Is Nanny Cheaper Than Daycare for Two Kids?

[Anonymous]

Au pair is cheaper, but they need to live with you.

[Anonymous]

Nannies are asking $35 per hour for 2 kids! Crazy

[Anonymous]

I met a nice family and I was fine with $22 per hour for 2 kids. But it was a temporary job, was easy, nice family and I wanted to help that family too. Now I got my bachelors and pregnant. Nannies can be expensive. Some range from $15 -$30. Some charges more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daycare is still cheaper.

A nanny for two will be $28-32hr.
Time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week
10% of nanny's gross annual income in employer taxes
$750 per year for taxes and payroll
$750 per year for workers comp policy
$0.65/mile gas reimbursement
Plus money for all the activities your kids do with the nanny

Our twins are now 11. When they were born, we looked into it and it would have been $20-22 for two children. So the above it much closer to the rates for two children. You are going to have a hard time finding an experienced nanny to take two children for under $25/hr. You can find less experienced ones, but do you want to trust your children with a less experienced caretaker? I wasn't. We ended up deciding to go with daycare because there was a daycare in my wife's building. We commuted together and I dropped all three of them off. My wife ate her lunch at her desk while working and then would take between 30-60 min and she would go down to the daycare and spend some time there. She could help out with our kids, which often freed up the teacher's hands for the other 4 kids in the room (two teachers for 6 children). It really comforted my wife to be able to visit each day. She visited 3-5 times a week for the first few months and then slowly started going down less and less.

However, the above list is not complete. In addition, you also have to pay the employer portion of FICA which is 7.65% of the wages. That's a lot more than $750. For $25/hr, that comes to about $4000. You also are likely going to need to offer at least two weeks paid leave. There are many other optional benefits that can be offered. Remember that good nannies are rarer and harder to find. And you are competing with other families with higher incomes. So you may have to offer additional perks or benefits to get a good nanny. We originally thought of a nanny and we actually advertised and interviewed several nannies. But we found that if we only offered the basics, like the above list that we were getting less experienced nannies. Some more experienced nannies who we tried to contact and interview wanted more benefits to even interview (they had other leads that were offering more). Many employers offer the use of a family car while working, cell phones, health insurance, meals (stocking the fridge with the nanny's preferred foods for lunches) and more. After several weeks of interviewing, we opted for the daycare slots. We weren't liking the candidates that were in the range we were comfortable spending and we couldn't really afford all the extras that the candidates we liked wanted. For us, it was about 150% higher for a good nanny for two than even the expensive daycare center that we ended up going with. Plus, all the work of doing the paperwork, payroll, taxes, etc. With twins, we also didn't want to have to do that much extra work. So, for us, the daycare center was a better option. Obviously, everyone's mileage will vary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daycare is still cheaper.

A nanny for two will be $28-32hr.
Time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week
10% of nanny's gross annual income in employer taxes
$750 per year for taxes and payroll
$750 per year for workers comp policy
$0.65/mile gas reimbursement
Plus money for all the activities your kids do with the nanny

Our twins are now 11. When they were born, we looked into it and it would have been $20-22 for two children. So the above it much closer to the rates for two children. You are going to have a hard time finding an experienced nanny to take two children for under $25/hr. You can find less experienced ones, but do you want to trust your children with a less experienced caretaker? I wasn't. We ended up deciding to go with daycare because there was a daycare in my wife's building. We commuted together and I dropped all three of them off. My wife ate her lunch at her desk while working and then would take between 30-60 min and she would go down to the daycare and spend some time there. She could help out with our kids, which often freed up the teacher's hands for the other 4 kids in the room (two teachers for 6 children). It really comforted my wife to be able to visit each day. She visited 3-5 times a week for the first few months and then slowly started going down less and less.

However, the above list is not complete. In addition, you also have to pay the employer portion of FICA which is 7.65% of the wages. That's a lot more than $750. For $25/hr, that comes to about $4000. You also are likely going to need to offer at least two weeks paid leave. There are many other optional benefits that can be offered. Remember that good nannies are rarer and harder to find. And you are competing with other families with higher incomes. So you may have to offer additional perks or benefits to get a good nanny. We originally thought of a nanny and we actually advertised and interviewed several nannies. But we found that if we only offered the basics, like the above list that we were getting less experienced nannies. Some more experienced nannies who we tried to contact and interview wanted more benefits to even interview (they had other leads that were offering more). Many employers offer the use of a family car while working, cell phones, health insurance, meals (stocking the fridge with the nanny's preferred foods for lunches) and more. After several weeks of interviewing, we opted for the daycare slots. We weren't liking the candidates that were in the range we were comfortable spending and we couldn't really afford all the extras that the candidates we liked wanted. For us, it was about 150% higher for a good nanny for two than even the expensive daycare center that we ended up going with. Plus, all the work of doing the paperwork, payroll, taxes, etc. With twins, we also didn't want to have to do that much extra work. So, for us, the daycare center was a better option. Obviously, everyone's mileage will vary.

There are many experienced nannies from $20-25 per hour. Expensive nannies not always are great, some of them are lazy like the younger nannies. I prefer a mid age nanny

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daycare is still cheaper.

A nanny for two will be $28-32hr.
Time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week
10% of nanny's gross annual income in employer taxes
$750 per year for taxes and payroll
$750 per year for workers comp policy
$0.65/mile gas reimbursement
Plus money for all the activities your kids do with the nanny

How early did you do daycare?

PP here. We never did daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daycare is still cheaper.

A nanny for two will be $28-32hr.
Time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week
10% of nanny's gross annual income in employer taxes
$750 per year for taxes and payroll
$750 per year for workers comp policy
$0.65/mile gas reimbursement
Plus money for all the activities your kids do with the nanny

Our twins are now 11. When they were born, we looked into it and it would have been $20-22 for two children. So the above it much closer to the rates for two children. You are going to have a hard time finding an experienced nanny to take two children for under $25/hr. You can find less experienced ones, but do you want to trust your children with a less experienced caretaker? I wasn't. We ended up deciding to go with daycare because there was a daycare in my wife's building. We commuted together and I dropped all three of them off. My wife ate her lunch at her desk while working and then would take between 30-60 min and she would go down to the daycare and spend some time there. She could help out with our kids, which often freed up the teacher's hands for the other 4 kids in the room (two teachers for 6 children). It really comforted my wife to be able to visit each day. She visited 3-5 times a week for the first few months and then slowly started going down less and less.

However, the above list is not complete. In addition, you also have to pay the employer portion of FICA which is 7.65% of the wages. That's a lot more than $750. For $25/hr, that comes to about $4000. You also are likely going to need to offer at least two weeks paid leave. There are many other optional benefits that can be offered. Remember that good nannies are rarer and harder to find. And you are competing with other families with higher incomes. So you may have to offer additional perks or benefits to get a good nanny. We originally thought of a nanny and we actually advertised and interviewed several nannies. But we found that if we only offered the basics, like the above list that we were getting less experienced nannies. Some more experienced nannies who we tried to contact and interview wanted more benefits to even interview (they had other leads that were offering more). Many employers offer the use of a family car while working, cell phones, health insurance, meals (stocking the fridge with the nanny's preferred foods for lunches) and more. After several weeks of interviewing, we opted for the daycare slots. We weren't liking the candidates that were in the range we were comfortable spending and we couldn't really afford all the extras that the candidates we liked wanted. For us, it was about 150% higher for a good nanny for two than even the expensive daycare center that we ended up going with. Plus, all the work of doing the paperwork, payroll, taxes, etc. With twins, we also didn't want to have to do that much extra work. So, for us, the daycare center was a better option. Obviously, everyone's mileage will vary.

I'm the PP that you quoted. The "$750 taxes and payroll" was referring to $750/year for a tax/payroll company. I put "10% of nanny's gross annual income in domestic employer taxes" which encompasses the percentage for FICA.

Standard benefits are 2 weeks paid vacation, one week of sick days, paid holidays, guaranteed hours, and about half of families offer a health insurance stipend in the amount of $200-400/month.

-Full time nanny for 15 years, now mom of 2 that employs a nanny

[Anonymous]

I live in Brooklyn. As for me being more cost-effective, daycare also offers a structured environment for children to learn and socialize with their peers. So I would rather have my child in daycare than with a nanny. It takes me and my son only 5 minutes to walk from our home to his daycare https://littlescholarsnyc.com/.

[Anonymous]

Our monthly nanny expenses, including taxes, is $4600/month. A private part time preschool in Bethesda we looked at for our toddler was $2000/month. And that ended at 3pm so we still would have needed care until 5pm. Infant daycare is $2500-2800/month because they have to hire more employees for that age. So yeah, nanny could be cheaper or same price.

[Anonymous]

Daycare is cheaper and kids can socialize much more

[Anonymous]

Even if nanny is cheaper for a particular year (two kids close in age, staying home), the opportunity/time costs of finding and training one should be taken into account. Also, most people want to send their kids to preschool by 3, and 4 at the latest, so that savings is only really one year. Then maybe you're used to it, but you're paying nanny plus preschool, and very quickly when you see how wonderful it is for the kids, two preschools or letting your nanny go. I see SO many posts in my moms group that the nanny was there one year and now the child is going to full time preschool/daycare in the fall.
This is all just food for thought. Nanny can be a great gap-filler to get through that one tough year. But it doesn't strike me as a choice that should be made on what's the absolute cheapest, rather, where is the best value for the money for your particular family situation.

[Anonymous]

Worth every extra penny at that age