How much $ to watch baby while we're away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot afford to have her watch him. Find a family member or change your plans.

Someone who could afford this would not be asking if you need to pay for her food (of course you will pay for her food).

A quick, rough breakdown of cost:

assuming your baby's day runs 7am-8pm (13hr per day)...

13hr/day x 7 days = 91 hours

40 hours at $16/hr = $640
51 hours at $24/hr = $1,224

for overnights you will either pay a higher set rate (I'd ask $150-200/night if your baby is up at ALL during the night) or a lower set rate ($100-$150/night) plus $24/hr (OT hourly pay) for any time the baby is up, rounded up to the hour (i.e. if the baby wakes up at 2am and goes back down at 2:20am, you'll pay for the FULL hour - not 20 minutes of it - as the nanny still needs to get herself back to bed/has had her rest seriously interrupted).

So you're looking at around/at least $900 for the overnights.

That's a total of $2746 plus expenses.

This is ridiculous. For a trip this long, the overnights should be $50-100/night, regardless of how many times the baby wakes up. And this is coming from a nanny who is VERY careful about being paid properly.

I completely agree.

[Anonymous]

A reduced hourly rate for the week? Excuse me?

Because this is a domestic employee and not the employee of a larger business, the nanny is obligated to earn LESS PER HOUR than she normally makes? Did the value of her time or services suddenly decrease when she offered to work more hours?

Please, please PPs, please tell me in what other industry someone who is asked to work more than triple their regular weekly hours volunteers to be paid less per hour than they normally make.

I will be holding my breath, so please hurry!

[Anonymous]

I just did this for 5 days and the cost for my employers was $2640. I charged for every hour that I worked because the baby is only 5 months old. The parents paid the baby nurse all her hours, so it's not like I'm not going to be paid for all my hours. Before the baby was born I would charge $100 flat rate for the overnight with the other kids. If you have to ask about buying food, you really can't afford this type of luxury.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add that the baby nurse wasn't there any more, she left last month. So if they paid her overnights of course I expected to be paid as well! Life isn't free.

[Anonymous]

$2746? When my employers ask me to do overnighters that are longer than a couple days, I reduce the hourly wage by a bit. Works for both parties. They feel like they are not paying exorbitantly and I get extra money tht I wouldn't have had otherwise. You can pay a legal wage and not go broke.

[Anonymous]

If you offer the nanny other means of compensation, she may agree. Flight tickets and extra paid time off so she can take a little vacation to, might be nice.

[Anonymous]

Nanny should get paid her normal hourly rate for her regular hours and a set price for each overnight. For an entire week, OP should be looking to pay around $2000. I've never heard of a nanny lowering their rates just because they are working for an entire week without any free time to themselves. OP, did you ask your nanny what number she had in mind for this arrangement? I would ask her instead of relying on everyone in here.

[Anonymous]

In order to legally pay, she would have lower the hourly rate to come to $2000, which I think is a fair price. Usually the choice is a lower hourly rate to make it affordable to the parents, which also equals a nice bit of extra cash for the nanny, win-win, or not an option at all. Plus, it isn't a factory job, the nanny had the ability to do the things she needs to do as well, just like a parent. If nanny's family is close, would it be okay for them to watch baby for an hour or two if she needs a quick workout? I would also specify absolutely no alcohol during the week that she is in charge.

-Career nanny

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In order to legally pay, she would have lower the hourly rate to come to $2000, which I think is a fair price. Usually the choice is a lower hourly rate to make it affordable to the parents, which also equals a nice bit of extra cash for the nanny, win-win, or not an option at all. Plus, it isn't a factory job, the nanny had the ability to do the things she needs to do as well, just like a parent. If nanny's family is close, would it be okay for them to watch baby for an hour or two if she needs a quick workout? I would also specify absolutely no alcohol during the week that she is in charge.

-Career nanny

Good advice. I am able to take my charges home with me to get stuff done around the house and can go out to dinner, so it's not at all like I am stuck at my boss' home when sitting for them on overnights.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I have not discussed this yet with our nanny - will have that conversation this coming week. But it sounds like it would save me a lot of money to fly in grandma and keep the nanny for her regular work week hours only. Thanks so much for all your input!

[Anonymous]

Nanny here who just did the over night for $2640. If my Boss had offered me airmiles, I would have done the overnights for free!! My family lives 7000 miles away and I would have just charged my hourly rate in exchange for airmiles. But my Bosses are multi millionaires and really didn't care about the hours. However, in future if another family ask me for this, I'll ask them about the airmiles because for me to fly home it's over $2000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot afford to have her watch him. Find a family member or change your plans.

Someone who could afford this would not be asking if you need to pay for her food (of course you will pay for her food).

A quick, rough breakdown of cost:

assuming your baby's day runs 7am-8pm (13hr per day)...

13hr/day x 7 days = 91 hours

40 hours at $16/hr = $640
51 hours at $24/hr = $1,224

for overnights you will either pay a higher set rate (I'd ask $150-200/night if your baby is up at ALL during the night) or a lower set rate ($100-$150/night) plus $24/hr (OT hourly pay) for any time the baby is up, rounded up to the hour (i.e. if the baby wakes up at 2am and goes back down at 2:20am, you'll pay for the FULL hour - not 20 minutes of it - as the nanny still needs to get herself back to bed/has had her rest seriously interrupted).

So you're looking at around/at least $900 for the overnights.

That's a total of $2746 plus expenses.

This is ridiculous. For a trip this long, the overnights should be $50-100/night, regardless of how many times the baby wakes up. And this is coming from a nanny who is VERY careful about being paid properly.

+1

I would want to charge $75 for the non-awake hours (say 8pm-7am) since it is with a child that might still wake up during the night, and then my normal hourly rate for the awake hours (7am-8pm). I would probably not charge any OT just use these rates for the whole time. I would expect that there be some basic food provided for me (milk, some fruit, bread, etc) and then I could always supplement it myself.

It would come to $208 for each daytime hours and then $283 for a whole 24 hours. For the 7 days and 6 nights, it would come to $1906 ($1456+$450).

Even if I chose to do only $50 a night, that would still end up being $1756 total ($1456+$300). I might drop that to a flat $1700 for you, especially if the first or last days you were gone didn't equal a whole day. You can't really go any lower than that, that is with the nanny being very considerate/flexible with rates already.

[Anonymous]

I've always been paid a flat rate for weeks like this... talk to your nanny, I'm sure you can come to a fair agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A reduced hourly rate for the week? Excuse me?

Because this is a domestic employee and not the employee of a larger business, the nanny is obligated to earn LESS PER HOUR than she normally makes? Did the value of her time or services suddenly decrease when she offered to work more hours?

Please, please PPs, please tell me in what other industry someone who is asked to work more than triple their regular weekly hours volunteers to be paid less per hour than they normally make.

I will be holding my breath, so please hurry!

Actually, volume discounts are very common in most industries. Lawyers frequently discount the hourly rate charged to clients who bring them a big project. Retailers typically provide discounts to customers who buy a high volume of goods. Real estate agents will often discount their rate based on the anticipated price of the property. And every salaried professional who has ever had a major project requiring extra hours ends up earning less on an hourly basis than he or she normally gets paid.

OP, many nannies charge a negotiated flat rate for this kind of work, and the flat rate works out to considerably less than the typical hourly rate. However, to protect you as employer, there should be a written agreement specifying a regular hourly rate and a OT rate for the job, even if the regular rate is lower than what the nanny usually earns. Also, per FLSA rules and subject to a few caveats, you can exclude from pay up to eight hours in each 24 hour period provided that the nanny is able to sleep during that time. http://www.4nannytaxes.com/index.cfm/faq/nannyhousekeeper-faq-list/overtime-calculation/

[Anonymous]

Why are the PP's making a big issue about the food. I'm sure OP is not going to make the nanny stay in the house for 7 days straight. the nanny can take the baby out and about, she can get food. How is this any different from the nanny buying her own food anyway. Yes OP include about $50 for food but unless you are requiring her to stay in the house for 7 days and 6 nights, then the PPs are overreacting.