First time traveling with nanny -- how to pay?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know why I continue to be shocked by the angry, incredulous tone of every response to reasonable, mom-to-mom questions on DCUM…people really need to CALM DOWN.

Of course I plan to provide for her accommodations, all meals, etc. Of course I plan to pay her exactly what she deserves, WHICH IS WHY IM ASKING ON HERE what is standard. We love her and she loves us. We don’t pay her overtime because I have never had her stay overtime. I relieve her each day a minute or two before quitting time and no later. If she babysits on a Saturday night after working for us during the week, we pay her our usual rate, which is exactly what she has asked for. If we go on vacation without her, I pay her her 40 hours, because that’s what we guarantee her each week. I don’t know why it’s so offensive to ask whether I can simply count her hours on different days, ensuring they add up to our agreed upon 40 minimum, and then pay her overtime for anything beyond that.

As I said in my post, I’ve never done this before, and I’m a relatively new mom. The way everyone automatically assumed I wouldn’t feed her, or “ship her off to a random place” or that i plan to not treat her well in any way is absurd.

SORRY I ASKED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bring a detailed breakdown of the hours you will need, as well as travel arrangements and sleeping arrangements and the location of the hotel and ask her what she thinks would be reasonable.

As a nanny, I charge for travel time if I am supposed to sit with the family, but not if I can sit by myself.

I would charge for all overnights if you wanted me to share a room with the baby, but if the baby will be in your room when I am not in charge of her, then I would charge less. My overnight fee is generally half pay for hours between 7pm and 7am.

I would want you to pay for all meals, either by giving me free rein to order room service or via daily stipend. And I would expect to be paid for all my normal hours, even if you don’t need me, as well as all overtime hours at time-and-a-half.

So for example if you all arrived on Wednesday, I would expect to be paid for my normal working hours Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (even if you all spent most of those days doing family stuff without me), and still be paid overtime rate for all the weekend hours.

BUT every nanny is different so ask her what she prefers.

Thanks for this. So what if we left on Wednesday and she didn’t get there til Friday, meaning she had off all day Weds and Thurs, but then worked over the weekend? Can we just pay her her usual 40 hours, plus any hours she works beyond that? I.e. she’s not working the 18 hours on Weds-Thurs that she normally would be, so can we count those towards her work on the weekend instead?

That’s called trying to bank hours which is illegal you cheapskate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We pay our nanny $20/hr for 40 hours a week. We don't pay overtime but we very rarely ask her to babysit at night or stay late. When we do, we pay the same rate.

We want her to travel with us for a family wedding. I've never traveled with a nanny before. How do we pay her for this? Realistically we will only need her Friday afternoon and evening, all day Saturday and Saturday night, and Sunday morning. But she'll of course physically be there with us the whole time, regardless of when she's "on" vs "off." How should we pay her? How do you factor in sleeping time, travel time (whether she travels with us or takes a later flight), etc.?

For reference, we live in NWDC, in case it's helpful to know for going rates.

Thanks so much!

Federal law is that you pay 1.5 for ALL HOURS OVER 40/WEEK. you are breaking the law and leaving yourself open for a lawsuit which she will win. You are cheap and despicable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why I continue to be shocked by the angry, incredulous tone of every response to reasonable, mom-to-mom questions on DCUM…people really need to CALM DOWN.

Of course I plan to provide for her accommodations, all meals, etc. Of course I plan to pay her exactly what she deserves, WHICH IS WHY IM ASKING ON HERE what is standard. We love her and she loves us. We don’t pay her overtime because I have never had her stay overtime. I relieve her each day a minute or two before quitting time and no later. If she babysits on a Saturday night after working for us during the week, we pay her our usual rate, which is exactly what she has asked for. If we go on vacation without her, I pay her her 40 hours, because that’s what we guarantee her each week. I don’t know why it’s so offensive to ask whether I can simply count her hours on different days, ensuring they add up to our agreed upon 40 minimum, and then pay her overtime for anything beyond that.

As I said in my post, I’ve never done this before, and I’m a relatively new mom. The way everyone automatically assumed I wouldn’t feed her, or “ship her off to a random place” or that i plan to not treat her well in any way is absurd.

SORRY I ASKED.

You should be ashamed. I hope she finds another job with decent people.

[Anonymous]

You are breaking the law when she babysits and doesn't get overtime. Fact.

Think about this - your boss comes to you tomorrow and says, hey Stacy, I'm going to have you get on a plane Wednesday with my kids. I won't pay you Wednesday or Thursday because you won't be doing anything but trapped somewhere with me and my family. Then all weekend, 24/7 you are entertaining my kids while I get plastered. I won't be paying you over time. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why I continue to be shocked by the angry, incredulous tone of every response to reasonable, mom-to-mom questions on DCUM…people really need to CALM DOWN.

Of course I plan to provide for her accommodations, all meals, etc. Of course I plan to pay her exactly what she deserves, WHICH IS WHY IM ASKING ON HERE what is standard. We love her and she loves us. We don’t pay her overtime because I have never had her stay overtime. I relieve her each day a minute or two before quitting time and no later. If she babysits on a Saturday night after working for us during the week, we pay her our usual rate, which is exactly what she has asked for. If we go on vacation without her, I pay her her 40 hours, because that’s what we guarantee her each week. I don’t know why it’s so offensive to ask whether I can simply count her hours on different days, ensuring they add up to our agreed upon 40 minimum, and then pay her overtime for anything beyond that.

As I said in my post, I’ve never done this before, and I’m a relatively new mom. The way everyone automatically assumed I wouldn’t feed her, or “ship her off to a random place” or that i plan to not treat her well in any way is absurd.

SORRY I ASKED.

You can't count the days you aren't there as her "days off". You're still asking her to change her schedule, travel and work on a weekend. Pay her as if she worked a full, normal week and then ask what she charges for the weekend/travel.

[Anonymous]

If the kids aren't attending the wedding, why force her to travel and be stuck with kids bored in a hotel room especially with covid?

You pay her $25 an hour for every hour worked and travel and $10 an hour for every hour she is there. Plus, her own hotel room and food/activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If OP is happy to hire another sitter for date nights but Nanny wants to do it for normal rate I think that’s fine. I think OT rate is more for mandatory hours. OP for travel you should pay for travel time, work hours, a d a flare rate per night for sleeping. You don’t need to pay her hourly for sleeping imo.

I am sorry your opinion doesn’t count. Overtime is any time in a week worked over 40 hours and if you don’t pay it, that’s wage theft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why I continue to be shocked by the angry, incredulous tone of every response to reasonable, mom-to-mom questions on DCUM…people really need to CALM DOWN.

Of course I plan to provide for her accommodations, all meals, etc. Of course I plan to pay her exactly what she deserves, WHICH IS WHY IM ASKING ON HERE what is standard. We love her and she loves us. We don’t pay her overtime because I have never had her stay overtime. I relieve her each day a minute or two before quitting time and no later. If she babysits on a Saturday night after working for us during the week, we pay her our usual rate, which is exactly what she has asked for. If we go on vacation without her, I pay her her 40 hours, because that’s what we guarantee her each week. I don’t know why it’s so offensive to ask whether I can simply count her hours on different days, ensuring they add up to our agreed upon 40 minimum, and then pay her overtime for anything beyond that.

As I said in my post, I’ve never done this before, and I’m a relatively new mom. The way everyone automatically assumed I wouldn’t feed her, or “ship her off to a random place” or that i plan to not treat her well in any way is absurd.

SORRY I ASKED.

OP you should understand what overtime is. Any hours worked over 40 hours in one work week is overtime.

[Anonymous]

You have to pay her for every hour she’s away from home or agree to a flat day rate. We pay our nanny $400 a day.

[Anonymous]

As a travel nanny my rates are different but when I was just traveling every now and then

I charged my regular guaranteed hours plus OT hrs for those hours outside of my regular hours plus a travel fee of $100/day away from home.

So if you are choosing to not take her Wednesday and Thursday. You still pay her the guaranteed hours per the contract you have. She can come in and do kid related things while your gone. Friday her hours start the time she arrives at the airport (I believe you said you where flying) til the time she gets in her own car home on Sunday.

So yes by Friday depending on the hours she’ll fall into OT either Friday night or Saturday morning. Anything outside her normal contract hours is paid at OT. Plus a travel fee daily.

You should also update your contract and add a travel clause.

If you’re paying legally you would be paying the weekend babysitting as OT which means you are either paying illegally on all pay or just the weekends either way you’re screwing your nanny and Shame on you


And yes you should be paying OT rates for her weekend babysitting you are having her do.

[Anonymous]

As per usual, lots of unhelpful, angry responses.

OP, you don't need to pay OT. My employers pay me $22/hour and I get right of first refusal for date night and weekend care hours. I don't ask for time and a half, nor have they ever brought it up. Date night hours are ridiculously easy and if I'm not available, it's just as easy for them to hire a teen/college student $15-$20 for kids who will be asleep for a majority of the care date. I've never ever felt anything wrong with this. It's a win-win, regardless of whatever some of these posters say. Been working for 4 years, so not stopping now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As per usual, lots of unhelpful, angry responses.

OP, you don't need to pay OT. My employers pay me $22/hour and I get right of first refusal for date night and weekend care hours. I don't ask for time and a half, nor have they ever brought it up. Date night hours are ridiculously easy and if I'm not available, it's just as easy for them to hire a teen/college student $15-$20 for kids who will be asleep for a majority of the care date. I've never ever felt anything wrong with this. It's a win-win, regardless of whatever some of these posters say. Been working for 4 years, so not stopping now.

You do realize that you could file today with the Department of Labor and get a windfall of something probably huge, 5 figures, in back pay? Nothing to be proud of when you were screwed out of legal wages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As per usual, lots of unhelpful, angry responses.

OP, you don't need to pay OT. My employers pay me $22/hour and I get right of first refusal for date night and weekend care hours. I don't ask for time and a half, nor have they ever brought it up. Date night hours are ridiculously easy and if I'm not available, it's just as easy for them to hire a teen/college student $15-$20 for kids who will be asleep for a majority of the care date. I've never ever felt anything wrong with this. It's a win-win, regardless of whatever some of these posters say. Been working for 4 years, so not stopping now.

You do realize that you could file today with the Department of Labor and get a windfall of something probably huge, 5 figures, in back pay? Nothing to be proud of when you were screwed out of legal wages.

+1

[Anonymous]

When we travel with our nanny, we pay her for the hours she works (including travel time). We also pay her a per diem of $40 (this is what she wanted), which is in addition to any meals she eats with us or the kids.

She and I discussed several options, and this was her preference. I think it's pretty fair. She didn't (and I don't) think paying for sleeping time makes sense. Two different nannies have said the same. Also, if you are paying on the books you'd be in violation of labor laws very quickly on a longer trip...since you can't have people working 24 hours for extended periods of time.