Nannies at 40k gross/year

[Anonymous]

Honestly, this makes me wonder if I am paying too much. We pay our nanny about 50K (50 hrs a week at $16/hr with $24/hr for the time over 40 hours), + 2/3 of health insurance) and I posted on here when we were hiring and people acted like I was paying too little. This is for 2 kids (4 month old and 2 yr old), but it's A LOT of money for us, and we scrimp on everything else because of it. She has 20 yrs experience, is legal, and drives, so it seemed fair to me based on what I was reading here (I was even patting myself on the shoulder for just paying$16/hr). I'd love people's thoughts on if I am "being taken for a ride" as a previous poster said, or if this is me "getting a deal," as people posted when I first hired her.

I do think you are overpaying by about $180-$130 a week. For a 2 year old and an infant for 50 hours a week you can find a very qualified nanny for $700 a week. $880 a week for two kids is high. This would be a 10K savings without reducing the quality of the care. If you find a nanny for $500-$650, you would most likely be accepting some deficiency (limited english, less experience, no driving) but for $700 you should be able to find someone graet who has experience, is legal, drives and has great references.

You should consider what will happen in the next year. Your nanny will probably expect a large raise on her anniversy. Your 2 yr old will probably start a part time preschool in the next year or so but your nanny will not expect and probably not expect any pay cut or salary freeze.

You should also realize that the majority of the posters on the nanny forum are nannies. Its anonymous and often obvious that nannies are posting pretending to be moms. You really should not base your budget on what they say or you end where you are now.

I would also advise that you negotiate in terms of weekly gross against guaranteed hours and then in the contract specify the base and OT rate. Hourly rates are not always reflective of what nannies will accept and employers are willing to pay. Several of the nannies we interviewed originally asked for higher rates. I declined and told them we were only offering $700 for 45 hours. They quickly came back and said they would be happy to accept this amount. It turned out that they had been making more per hour but were only working 32 hours.

I hope that you only agreed to a specific amount of her healthcare (100-200 a month) and not 2/3 of whatever her insurance costs. Insurance costs are very variable by which plan the person chooses, their age, and their health status.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WARNING: NANNIES WILL NOT WANT YOU TO READ THIS POST. I tell you this because so many of us wish we knew then what we know now, as a fellow mom with literally no other help in the area.

Many of my friends and I have graduate degrees, happen to also have high IQ's (as if that matters) and have worked for $28k in this area. [We are fortunate to be in a position of other income so we can afford to stick with jobs we like, but I digress.] It is very likely around poverty level. But we don't try to "justify" or "sell" ourselves as outstanding this or outstanding that. The market is what it is. My (or nanny) telling you otherwise will not change the actual market.

I agree with OP that the market is slanted by a handful of wealthy people who are too lazy or whatever. Most of my friends can afford to pay what they want, and do so. I would NOT by any means say they are a representative sample of today's current market. It is not the same as just a few years ago, when nannies could job hop and moms could steal. It is very different now, just a few years later.

OP, go to the local college and pick up a college student for a fraction of the price. They won't be in your face about their qualifications (the college already screened them, so to speak), and all you need to do is ask them to supply you with a TB test (you can pay $25. for it at your own doctor; and a driving record for I believe around $10.).

Don't buy into ANY of the D.C. "I am so important, I impress the hell out of only myself" D.C. crap. *Go around it.* Especially with the few most expensive years you will need child care. Having seen many who have been taken and manipulated by nannies who have known the system better than the moms, I strongly urge this.

I don't want a college, student whose schedule changes every semester. I wanta professional nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:230:11 - You are correct. The nannies demanding more money often have no where else to go! You are very wise. I would not want someone who is at the jaded end, demanding more. I would prefer a nanny who is only doing it for a short time (and consequently demanding less money).

I want a nanny who has no other career options, so we can develop a long term relationship with her.

[Anonymous]

Unless you live walking distance to absolutely everything - kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc. - why would you hire a nanny who couldn't drive? Seems ridiculous to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you live walking distance to absolutely everything - kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc. - why would you hire a nanny who couldn't drive? Seems ridiculous to me.

Many of us live in the city where we are walking distance to everything that a nanny/child would need to access. DCURBANMOMS - get it?

[Anonymous]

Can't imagine it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of folks to a disservice by overpaying domestic employees. After you hit certain wage brackets you build up obligations relative to your earnings assuming you'll match them...Many of these nannies will re-enter the job market with the bitter reality that these high wages are not easy to come by and will now have obligations they can't sustain. I know this, in part, because it happened to my nanny...

What an amazingly condescending, patronizing statement. Reminds me of my granddad, who paid the colored folk less than his other employees, because "they'd just spend it on booze".

[Anonymous]

Unless you live walking distance to absolutely everything - kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc. - why would you hire a nanny who couldn't drive? Seems ridiculous to me.

Babies don't go to school and the nanny can always go on a walk in the neighborhood. Some parents want to avoid having a nanny drive their infants anyway. Some nannies do really want to socialize with other nannies during the day but why provide a car or gas mileage when the outing is not for the baby anyway? For toddlers and preschoolers, people may live in walking distance to a preschool, library, or park even in the suburbs. If we lived in the city we would prefer the nanny walk or take public transporation anyway since parking is such a pain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:230:11 - You are correct. The nannies demanding more money often have no where else to go! You are very wise. I would not want someone who is at the jaded end, demanding more. I would prefer a nanny who is only doing it for a short time (and consequently demanding less money).

You're quoting me but making incorrect assumptions. As I said, we hired a year and a half ago--and have the same nanny. She's been a nanny for 12 years and as far as I know, has no plans to change that. She seems happy with us and we are thrilled with her. She has her own transportation, is educated, is wonderful with my child, is reliable--and that's why we hired her. She, like the other good candidates we had, were not the candidates asking for the most money. Nor did they seem to be looking at the nanny job as something done for a short time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you live walking distance to absolutely everything - kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc. - why would you hire a nanny who couldn't drive? Seems ridiculous to me.

Why wouldn't you live within walking distance to absolutely everything- kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc? Why would you even need a nanny who drives? Seems ridiculous to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Unless you live walking distance to absolutely everything - kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc. - why would you hire a nanny who couldn't drive? Seems ridiculous to me.

Babies don't go to school and the nanny can always go on a walk in the neighborhood. Some parents want to avoid having a nanny drive their infants anyway. Some nannies do really want to socialize with other nannies during the day but why provide a car or gas mileage when the outing is not for the baby anyway? For toddlers and preschoolers, people may live in walking distance to a preschool, library, or park even in the suburbs. If we lived in the city we would prefer the nanny walk or take public transporation anyway since parking is such a pain.

Why would you hire a nanny for your babies that you didn't intend to keep once they got to be preschool age?

[Anonymous]

"Many of my friends and I have graduate degrees, happen to also have high IQ's (as if that matters) and have worked for $28k in this area"

Yo, Ms. Graduate degree/High IQ. Strike the apostrophe in IQs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you live walking distance to absolutely everything - kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc. - why would you hire a nanny who couldn't drive? Seems ridiculous to me.

Why wouldn't you live within walking distance to absolutely everything- kids' schools, activities, playdates, parks, libraries, etc? Why would you even need a nanny who drives? Seems ridiculous to me.

The whole reason we hired a nanny was to drive our oldest child to preschool.

[Anonymous]

Why would you hire a nanny for your babies that you didn't intend to keep once they got to be preschool age?

There are many reasons to do this. Nannies tend to either like staying in and watching babies or they want to be out and about. If you don't want your nanny dragging your baby all over town then you are better off hiring a nanny that wants to stay home and prefers babies. A nanny who enjoys taking kids on outings will go insane being around the neighborhood or house all day.

Nannies can price themselves out of jobs. They can expect a big raise when a second child is born or they expect raises when their workload declines if the older kids start going to preschool. Some moms can't swing paying the nanny full time for 4 months when she herself is not being paid while on maternity leave. I know several people who let their nanny go when they went on maternity leave and hired a new nanny when they went back to work. There weren't any transition issues and the moms saved a huge amount of money. There is not much difference between one kid or two kids in terms of rate so they ended up paying the new nanny less than the old one would have been making.

A families' needs can change. With an infant the mom may not have wanted or thought to ask about light housekeeping but once the kids go to preschool I don't know anyone who will pay their nanny to just sit on the couch for 15 hours a week doing nothing. Some nannies do not want to do light housekeeping so a new nanny is needed anyway.

Not all families who go to preschool need a driving nanny. I have one neighbor who carpools with another family. She drops both kids off in the morning and the other mom picks them up.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a US citizen, and my employer doesn't seem in the least concerned that I'll "up and leave." My nanny isn't a US citizen either.