The Price of Babysitting

[Anonymous]

I made 5 an hour in SW Va. in college babysitting the 2 worst boys I have ever encountered. This was the late '90s.

We pay $8 an hour to a girl (h.s. freshman) down the street to babysit our one child. We also pay her $10 a visit for catsitting our 3 cats when we are out of down, but I'm pretty sure she would do it for free!

I think we can get away with paying only $8 an hour since she literally lives 3 doors down in our safe culdesac so she doesn't have to get her parents to drive her anywhere.

[Anonymous]

13:06, we live in the city of Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

We pay $15/hour--college students/recent college grads with experience. It's a lot more than what I used to get paid...but then again, I didn't think I'd ever have to shell out over half a million for small house! It's inflation + location + experience.

[Anonymous]

I babysat from 1985 (11y) till sophomore year in college (1993) and got anywhere from $3-$5/hr. I remember being a high school student and charging $4/hr and parents thought that was too high b/c that is what they paid their adult sitters. This was in a wealthy part of GA.

[Anonymous]

As an 11 year old, I babysat for a family with a NEWBORN, a 2 yr old and a 4yr old. wtf??? and the 2 and 4 y.o's were wide awake when I arrived at 6 pm and acted exactly as you would imagine 2 and 4 yo's would act.

This was in the late 70s.

Now let's ask ourselves first, why on Earth would a parent feel safe and secure leaving me with their NEWBORN, 2 and 4 yr old for 5 hours? in an era w/o cellphones, I must point out. I hated babysitting and was not at all attentive to the kids. I left the 2 younger ones in their wet diapers and skipped the step of burping the NEWBORN because it was extra work and seemed incidental.

I think I made about $1.50 an hour in the Midwest, to answer OP's question.

[Anonymous]

I'm 34 and used to charge a $1 per hour, per kid. I lived in northwest Ohio.

Now we pay about $16 - $18 an hour. We have twins and our 'sitter' is the lead 'teacher' from their previous daycare room. The kids love her and our house is always picked up (including the kitchen!) when we get home. The sitter we used previously asked for $12/hour.

[Anonymous]

My daughter started babysitting this year when she turned 13. She started out asking for $5 an hour to get experience. Now at 13 1/2 she's getting about $6 or $7, even with multiple kids. She's a great sitter and all the kids love her, but I wonder if she's being underpaid. Even at that rate, she's racked up enough pretty quickly to buy an iPod touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter started babysitting this year when she turned 13. She started out asking for $5 an hour to get experience. Now at 13 1/2 she's getting about $6 or $7, even with multiple kids. She's a great sitter and all the kids love her, but I wonder if she's being underpaid. Even at that rate, she's racked up enough pretty quickly to buy an iPod touch.

You could look at it this way: she's making more than minimum wage, without taxes, at an age where normal employers can't even hire her. Probably not. And if she asked more, people might start hiring the 18 yr old sitter instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 34 and used to charge a $1 per hour, per kid. I lived in northwest Ohio.

Same age, same region-- I thought I had been taken advantage of, but I feel better with your post! Initally (around age 12) I got paid $2.50/ hour to watch kids 5 & 7, or thereabouts. But I was ambitious... I moved up to $4, for a toddler and an infant. And this wasn't Saturday night sitting... the summers I was 13 and 14, I was providing 30-hour-a-week care for a part-time working mom. It took me no time at all to save up enough to buy the contact lenses that my mother said were a "vanity".

We only used a paid sitter once in DC, an elementary school teacher who lives on our block and babysits in her spare time. She asked $15 an hour, and we were in a bind. All in all, I'm very glad to have family and friends who are happy to keep my child for a few hours.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't pay a 13 or 14 yo more than $7 or $8 per hour. I think that's a perfectly reasonable rate for that age, and the sitters I've had seemed happy with the money. I figure that an afternoon or evening of sitting at that rate equals enough to buy a new sweater or something at the mall, which seems like a fair trade.

As a parent I wouldn't want my young teen earning too much per hour or having too much cash on hand. That said, I pay my grad student sitter $13/hour, which seems like a deal to me. (I have paid $15/hour to people not nearly as good). She seems very happy with it, and it's more than she makes per hour at her campus job. There is zero correlation, I have found, between what babysitter ask for, in terms of rate, and their quality.

[Anonymous]

I'm 14:53, and I wanted to continue. There does seem to be correlation between the socio-economic status of the babysitter and the rate she asks: i.e., I interviewed a bunch of sitters, and two from very posh areas asked for $18-25/hour. These were not very experienced girls. They were high school seniors with no particular childcare skills. But I guess they are getting that from someone. I moved onto the next candidate.

[Anonymous]

I pay a college (when home on vacation) $10 per hour. Mostly, I trade babysitting with neighbors.

[Anonymous]

PP here.

I hit submit too soon.

When I was a babysitter (89-96) I made $2.00-$3.50 an hour. Minimum wage at the time was $4.00/hr and when I waited tables it was $2.10/hr plus tips. I lived in rural Upstate NY and people didn't tip.

[Anonymous]

We recently hired a babysitter at the beach while we were on vacation (for a date night dinner). She was 18 and the daughter of one of the women at the rental company (suggested after their regular sitters were all booked). We have rented there for years and have used their sitters before and it has been fine, so we were ok with this. She was a very nice girl. I asked her what her rate was. She shrugged her shoulders and said something like whatever you want to give me. I said that in DC we normally paid $17/hour. Her mouth dropped open. I paid her the $17 since I didn't know what else to do and, as my husband said, we're used to it. Next year there will probably be a line of sitter's cards waiting for us at check in.

[Anonymous]

I used to pay 8 GBP/hour for babysitting and 6 for cleaning in London a few years ago. At the time, the dollar was worth half a pound. Domestic services here cost a lot more compared to the general cost of living-- not sure why that's warranted. In general, London is a dramatically more expensive place.

I think, though I don't really remember, that I used to earn $4 or $5/ hour as a high school sitter around 1990 in L.A.