What To Offer Nanny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How does asking for more not warrant more money? Did you refuse your last raise/promotion by this logic? Doubt it.

Because you're not necessarily asking for MORE work, just more varied work. It is very concievable that all of the required tasks are still very doable within your allotted hours.

So your logic is that because it can fit in her day that means she can and should do it for the same rate? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You are paying for her time related to child care, most nannies do additional work but best believe that additional work is paid for. My that logic a lab tech who is waiting around for results should then go clean the bathrooms, break rooms, make lunch for all the staff, take out the trash and clean the floors, because those things can be done in the time they spend waiting for lab results, (just as the nanny has time when a child sleeps) and that lab tech should only get paid exactly what the job description for a lab tech alone should be paid. Because after all they can get those other things done in the time they are at work!

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised that no one has asked OP where she lives. Rates really differ between NW DC, Bethesda, NOVA, Potomac, Rockville, Silver Spring. $16-$18 as a starting salary for 2 kids and light housekeeping is pretty high for anywhere other than NW DC. $15 is really good starting rate in Bethesda, closer in NOVA and a high starting salary in Silver Spring, Rockville, Potomac etc.

[Anonymous]

OP, here is my suggestion:
The range is $15-$20/hr for what you're looking for. Figure out what hourly rate you're comfortable paying that will allow you to give some raises over the next few years, and post a detailed ad that spells out exactly what the duties and benefits of the job are.

If you get good responses from acceptable candidates, then, hooray! If not, see if you can raise the rate, eliminate some duties, or add additional benefits like more paid time off or a car for the nanny's use.

As some people have pointed out, your location, even in the DC area, will affect your employee pool, and, honestly, factors like age and years of experience will influence who applies for your job and what they're willing to accept.

[Anonymous]

Ditto the point that where you are in this area greatly influences answer as does number of hrs.

[Anonymous]

So much depends on what you're used to earning. I could not accept a dip in my rates.

[Anonymous]

Ditto the point that where you are in this area greatly influences answer as does number of hrs.

Good point on number of hours, the higher the hour count the lower the hourly rate and vice versa for lower hour counts.

Also, everyone quotes average rates. I never encountered a nanny who reported her previous base rate, just her average rate. Its best to negotiate in terms of average hourly rate and weekly gross against # of hours in the schedule if your job involves more than 40 hours. In your contract you should figure out the actual base rate (will be lower than the average) and actual OT rate (will be higher than the base rate).

[Anonymous]

Some MBs want to be in la-la land.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ditto the point that where you are in this area greatly influences answer as does number of hrs.

Good point on number of hours, the higher the hour count the lower the hourly rate and vice versa for lower hour counts.

Also, everyone quotes average rates. I never encountered a nanny who reported her previous base rate, just her average rate. Its best to negotiate in terms of average hourly rate and weekly gross against # of hours in the schedule if your job involves more than 40 hours. In your contract you should figure out the actual base rate (will be lower than the average) and actual OT rate (will be higher than the base rate).

Keep telling yourself this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ditto the point that where you are in this area greatly influences answer as does number of hrs.

Good point on number of hours, the higher the hour count the lower the hourly rate and vice versa for lower hour counts.

Also, everyone quotes average rates. I never encountered a nanny who reported her previous base rate, just her average rate. Its best to negotiate in terms of average hourly rate and weekly gross against # of hours in the schedule if your job involves more than 40 hours. In your contract you should figure out the actual base rate (will be lower than the average) and actual OT rate (will be higher than the base rate).

I have never quoted a base rate, and I have gotten every single job I wanted. Why is it that you are comparing how much the nanny will make because of ridiculous overtime and adjusting your rate to be lower for YOUR advantage, are you not requesting MORE hours of work. I am glad I have never met a family like yours. Wonder how you would feel if your boss asked you to increase your hours by 50% but instead of paying overtime. Bet you'd feel like shit. If you don't want to pay so much overtime, don't request so much overtime PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

Out of curiosity, if you hired a nanny at $16/hr, for 40 hrs/wk then down the line had major changes in your employment/home life etc that you now need the nanny 60/hrs a week and then decided okay we're going to bring your rate down to $14/hr
The change LEGALLY, for 20 MORE hours of work is:
$640/week----> $1120/wk

But instead you do
$640/week ---->$980

Hmm I wonder who would go for that for working 150% the original time.
The way you talk you'd probably change to 13/hr, if that, so you can keep your average low.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thanks so much for the feedback, but here is some clarification that may help a little.

Our location is the Chevy Chase area. In addition to the kids meal prep we would LOVE if she could prep dinner for our family occasionally. She will probably work overtime often.

We want to offer a reasonable, but an extremely competitive salary/package. As someone has mentioned, I will definitely ask each candidate, but I would like to have an idea.


Thanks!

[Anonymous]

13:03 is full of BS. Big time.

Jobs that involve 45-55 hours a week do command a lower rate than jobs that involve 30-40 hours a week.

Never once saw a nanny quote her actual base rate. Same goes for employers. Quoting the average rate and the weekly gross / per # of scheduled hours resolves any confusion anyway. You stipulate the actual base and actual OT in your contract so it is clear what the OT rate is if you go over the normal scheduled hours.

[Anonymous]

Why is a nanny/job worth one rate at 40 hours, but because you need overtime, she/it is now worth less? I'm sorry, but you are definitely the one full of BS. Overtime is supposed to be costly! If it wasn't, everyone would ask for 60 hours!! When I ask for $18/hour for a job I mean exactly that; $18/hour for the first 40 and $27 for anything beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is a nanny/job worth one rate at 40 hours, but because you need overtime, she/it is now worth less? I'm sorry, but you are definitely the one full of BS. Overtime is supposed to be costly! If it wasn't, everyone would ask for 60 hours!! When I ask for $18/hour for a job I mean exactly that; $18/hour for the first 40 and $27 for anything beyond that.

PP here who was accused of BS.

PP maybe you should try to stop being cheap and justifying it. Every family I have interviewed with quoted their base rate then mentioned how many overtime hours was needed. I get paid 18/hr BASE with time and a half, as I should. My contract then echoes the same numbers discussed, no confusion there, actually much simpler that giving some random weekly number and then trying to figure out all the numbers in the contract. And anyone else who is in ANY industry. You want your nanny to be on the legal and pay her share, but you also want to short change her illegally?! Yeah that makes perfect sense right.

If your nanny did not spend that extra 10-15 hours with you she could make her same rate helping out another family, her time does not magically cost less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a nanny/job worth one rate at 40 hours, but because you need overtime, she/it is now worth less? I'm sorry, but you are definitely the one full of BS. Overtime is supposed to be costly! If it wasn't, everyone would ask for 60 hours!! When I ask for $18/hour for a job I mean exactly that; $18/hour for the first 40 and $27 for anything beyond that.

PP here who was accused of BS.

PP maybe you should try to stop being cheap and justifying it. Every family I have interviewed with quoted their base rate then mentioned how many overtime hours was needed. I get paid 18/hr BASE with time and a half, as I should. My contract then echoes the same numbers discussed, no confusion there, actually much simpler that giving some random weekly number and then trying to figure out all the numbers in the contract. And anyone else who is in ANY industry. You want your nanny to be on the legal and pay her share, but you also want to short change her illegally?! Yeah that makes perfect sense right.

If your nanny did not spend that extra 10-15 hours with you she could make her same rate helping out another family, her time does not magically cost less.

I think you quoted the wrong person. I was defending your argument. A nanny/your job warrants the same rate, at 50 hours as she/it does at 40.

[Anonymous]

Clarifying the difference between average rates and base/OT rates for the OP has nothing to do with being cheap unless the nanny posters are trying to manipulate her into thinking the positions warrant a higher overall gross when she establishes her base budget. (This probably is what is going on with them. Ugh.)

I wish I had known about the average rate thing when we were interviewing. I was quoting base rates and one candidate said that was a little too low for her. I thanked her politely and replied that sorry, we were not planning on going higher than X per week for X hours. She quickly responded in surprise that the gross rate I just quoted was great and she thought that I meant an amount that used the average rate. For all future candidates, I asked them to clarify whether they were talking about their average or base rate and all said average.

I have seen nannies on this board post many times how a job that offers fewer hours should and does pay more per hour. You can't have it both ways. If a job with fewer hours pays more then by definition a job with more hours pays less.