References not discussing salary
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Anonymous
Nannies are hourly employees, more on par with daycare and other hourly jobs than with their employers who make 100s of thousands of dollars a year, with insurance, retirement benefits, etc. Hourly employees' references are NOT generally asked these kinds of questions. Come on. |
Anonymous
| To the MB out there would do get as this question what do you say? How do you avoid not answering it? |
Anonymous
| I'm an employer. In my job, I've always had to list my prior salary for the past five years. It is perfectly fine for a nanny to state that she believes that she was underpaid. I certainly have done so in my career, but I do think prior experience is relevant. In our situation, our nanny was candid about what she was making -- she had been with a family for years -- and what she was willing to take since we only had one child. |
Anonymous
How does that information really help you with choosing an appropriate nanny? It does NOT in any way. You don't base pay for someone you are hiring on their prior work pay. You pay based on experience and duties and so on. That is such BS. It is really none of your business. |
Anonymous
+100 It is a relevant question and its fine for a nanny to disclose that she is seeking a higher paying job. Its also VERY valuable to ask references about their overall compensation package. When we were interviewing so many nannies were simply eager to get a job that they were not asking many questions or making many requests about other perks. There are too many posts on this board about nannies not negotiating for something and then later on expecting their employer to provide it. I made a point about asking references about vacation and extra time off. There was one candidate who said in the interview that the standard two weeks (one week or our choosing, one of hers was fine). When I spoke to the reference, I asked how much actually paid time off the nanny received and it was much more because they had grandparents who frequently came in and they went away for a month in the summer. This summer would travel back to her home country during that month. I went back to the candidate and asked her if she really was sure that two weeks was OK. She said yes again. I added once more for clarity that our jobs did not provide much flexibility with extra time off so even though we were doing guaranteed pay we wouldn't be taking extra vacation. At this point she then came out with how she wants to be able to go out of the country for a month once a year but it wouldn't be until next summer. She offered to take it without pay but said she would need to go. She wasn't the right fit for our family because this isn't something we wanted. |
Anonymous
| PP, that is obviously something that you could have talked about without knowing what the previous pay was. As you see, once she heard you would not be flexible with extra time off (even if unpaid) is when she was like "but I need to have this time". You can get to that point without knowing pay. It might have made you push more since you knew she liked the extra time off already, but you should be making this very clear in your interviews anyways. If you cannot be flexible about additional time off, then it is your job to make that clear. Also that is something that I think is fine to ask about when talking to a reference. Asking about their vacations and how much time the nanny took off (sick and vacation) is relevant to the position. If she takes a lot of sick days, if she tried to ask for her vacation days last minute or used many unpaid days off, etc. If she took one sick day and didn't use her own vacation days (only when family went out of town), then that is something that would really stand out and be a benefit to you. The pay rate has no benefit to you or relevance to the position other than you using it to negotiate her rate for you. |
Anonymous
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Something fishy is going on.
Not giving past salary info is just like not giving a reference. I worked for a multi-national corporation who kept getting sued for bad references. Then they formed a company policy to confirm dates of work, title and salary. No info about job performance could be given. Salary is completely relevant and part of a normal reference check. To withhold that information is like withholding any other piece of information during a reference check--makes an incomplete reference check. |
Anonymous
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"Nannies are hourly employees, more on par with daycare and other hourly jobs than with their employers who make 100s of thousands of dollars a year, with insurance, retirement benefits, etc. Hourly employees' references are NOT generally asked these kinds of questions. Come on. "
but in this sense they are not. Most other hourly workers are getting hired for a job that pays X rate for Y job - not one they are negotiating a rate for as is the case w/ nannies. Familes pay all sorts of rates depending on hrs needed, qualifications looking for, where they live, etc etc. So it makes much more sense to ask salary history. Also lets you know if you are offering a salary lower than before to have a discussion to make sure she is really intending to stick around and not just taking this to make ends meet while she keeps looking. |
Anonymous
| I hadn't intended to ask about salary when I checked references, but we were afraid that the nanny we liked most might find our rate too low ($18/hr for a share in DC) and not stick with us in the long run. When we brought up this fear with her former employer, they disclosed that the nanny had been making a similar rate - and that was the deciding factor for us. Prior to knowing that, we had thought we would offer the position to a safer candidate, one whom we surmised would be very satisfied with the rate. Sometimes knowing what the nanny made previously helps you judge whether she is going to truly be satisfied in the position, or whether she might bail when she finds a higher paying position. |
Anonymous
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Just to give myself as an example, I have had four nanny positions. My first I was paid nothing; it was part-time work in exchange for room and board. My next job paid 300 each week, and was live-in, for two school aged kids in a flyover state. My next job paid 400 each week for similar hours, also live-in, for two toddlers in DC. My current job pays almost 700 per week, live out, for two infants. With each job, I have gained both full-time and babysitting experience. The latest job has been the biggest jump, partly because I was at the $400 gig for 3 years, so I was hired as a nanny with 5 years experience, instead of only 2, which is how I started my $400 job.
Each job has been drastically different, and a potential employer who wanted to pay me what my boss out west paid would not be appealing to me at this point. I get that it levels out, as the difference between one year and 5 years' experience is a lot different than that between 5 and 10 years, especially as you settle into live-out or live-in positions more consistently. Still, you can see my point. Ask about pay if you want, but know that a lot factors in: age and number of kids, job duties, vacation, car/housing for a live in, level of experience of nanny, benefits or casual freebies, and the relationship between nanny and family. |
Anonymous
| I work in the nonprofit space. I just landed a new position. They required me to disclose my previous salary in the official application. |
Anonymous
| I agree. Very common for jobs outside of the nanny world to ask for your salary history. Most job applications have a place to list your previous salary. |
Anonymous
Most employers don't try to nickel and dime you the way the MBs around here do. |
Anonymous
I have worked outside of the nanny world and always left those questions blank, and it has never been a problem. |
Anonymous
Yeah, to leave those fields blank is never a problem until you become the top candidate for the job. Then you get asked for the info. |