Anonymous
06/02/2025 15:39
Subject: Babysitting Rates
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Came looking for this re a 14-16 year old with duty being chaperoning kid to camp either by foot or on train. Seems minimum wage would have to be the starting point, but also wondering if pay for the time to return home, thus a 30 min to walk there would be one hour pay?
Unless the 16yo is also going to the camp I Would pay for the time it would take to get back to your house yes. I don’t think you “ have to” but finding someone for morning car for only an hour is hard. If you’ve found someone make sure they feel appreciated.
We have an older teen who drives our 12 yo to/from soccer every 2 weeks. We pay well even though it’s a super easy gig.
Makes sense! Yes we want it to be enough it's worthwhile. The one hour walk and drop off is worth more to us anyways!
Anonymous
06/01/2025 21:23
Subject: Babysitting Rates
Anonymous wrote:Came looking for this re a 14-16 year old with duty being chaperoning kid to camp either by foot or on train. Seems minimum wage would have to be the starting point, but also wondering if pay for the time to return home, thus a 30 min to walk there would be one hour pay?
Unless the 16yo is also going to the camp I Would pay for the time it would take to get back to your house yes. I don’t think you “ have to” but finding someone for morning car for only an hour is hard. If you’ve found someone make sure they feel appreciated.
We have an older teen who drives our 12 yo to/from soccer every 2 weeks. We pay well even though it’s a super easy gig.
Anonymous
06/01/2025 20:54
Subject: Babysitting Rates
Came looking for this re a 14-16 year old with duty being chaperoning kid to camp either by foot or on train. Seems minimum wage would have to be the starting point, but also wondering if pay for the time to return home, thus a 30 min to walk there would be one hour pay?
Anonymous
02/01/2025 09:03
Subject: Babysitting Rates
Anonymous wrote:$15
This used to be a lot of $$ years ago but I live in SoCal where our minimum wage is $18/HR so I wouldn’t pay a teenage sitter a penny less than this.
Anonymous
01/19/2025 13:39
Subject: Babysitting Rates
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This conversation is pointless without geographic data. Where do you live OP?
We'd pay about $20/hr for what you describe. Normally teenage sitters get a little less (around $17-18) but the language skills, having own transportation, and just generally being very reliable (plus being a known quantity to our family) would merit a raise IMO. I'd probably give them a $1 raise each year they were with us until I got to $22-23.
High COL area (more than DC area) in Florida. Language skills are native French, not Spanish (which every babysitter would speak). French is rare but somewhat sought after as there are a few French elementary schools in the area.
There is no area of Florida that is a higher cost of living than the DC area.
Anonymous
01/18/2025 13:13
Subject: Babysitting Rates
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Teen rate: $15/hr for 1 kid, $17 for 2, $20 for 3 for 3 hours or more. Fewer hours than that, I’d bump up.
Speak for yourself. Everyone sets their own rates, except the kids who say, “pay me whatever you want”. That attitude should tell you they don’t take their work seriously.
“their work?” it’s babysitting. usually when kids are asleep. And the parents make it literally as easy as possible for them. I love how there are 14-17 year olds out there going around like they are expert CEOs of the babysitting field with their high rates for their quality work. They aren’t providing expert woodwork, they are watching your kids for a couple hours.