Do any other nannies use salary discretion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh, its none of their business what you charge your other family. Your reasons are more enterprising then logical but that does not make it their business.

Enterprising?

i just charge more because I feel that I am worth that price. I feel that I can command a certain price. I also know that if a family is living in sec 8 housing, they likely don't have as much disposable income as someone who lives in a 6000 sqft house in McLean.

So why would you take their job? I guess I'm not understanding.

The way it appears to me is that you can NOT actually command X price and you only luck out with the higher paying jobs occasionally.

Why take the job?

Hours, location, decent family. Reasons like that. I wouldn't take it if it put me under a certain income level. I try to work with the parents on price but I do have minimum requirements. So while I won't charge you the normal $20/hr, I can't go below $14.

LOL No one that can easily and reliably make $20/hr as a nanny would take a long term job that pays $14.... that is a HUGE difference. If you were talking about say babysitting for a low income family for one night, sure maybe you take a pay cut, feel good cause you helped someone out of a jam, and also made a couple bucks on the side. But to say you are taking a $6/hr hit because the family is "decent" and not too far away is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh, its none of their business what you charge your other family. Your reasons are more enterprising then logical but that does not make it their business.

Enterprising?

i just charge more because I feel that I am worth that price. I feel that I can command a certain price. I also know that if a family is living in sec 8 housing, they likely don't have as much disposable income as someone who lives in a 6000 sqft house in McLean.

So why would you take their job? I guess I'm not understanding.

The way it appears to me is that you can NOT actually command X price and you only luck out with the higher paying jobs occasionally.

Why take the job?

Hours, location, decent family. Reasons like that. I wouldn't take it if it put me under a certain income level. I try to work with the parents on price but I do have minimum requirements. So while I won't charge you the normal $20/hr, I can't go below $14.

LOL No one that can easily and reliably make $20/hr as a nanny would take a long term job that pays $14.... that is a HUGE difference. If you were talking about say babysitting for a low income family for one night, sure maybe you take a pay cut, feel good cause you helped someone out of a jam, and also made a couple bucks on the side. But to say you are taking a $6/hr hit because the family is "decent" and not too far away is absurd.

Lol. You should have learned by now that the wage is only part of pie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh, its none of their business what you charge your other family. Your reasons are more enterprising then logical but that does not make it their business.

Enterprising?

i just charge more because I feel that I am worth that price. I feel that I can command a certain price. I also know that if a family is living in sec 8 housing, they likely don't have as much disposable income as someone who lives in a 6000 sqft house in McLean.

So why would you take their job? I guess I'm not understanding.

The way it appears to me is that you can NOT actually command X price and you only luck out with the higher paying jobs occasionally.

Why take the job?

Hours, location, decent family. Reasons like that. I wouldn't take it if it put me under a certain income level. I try to work with the parents on price but I do have minimum requirements. So while I won't charge you the normal $20/hr, I can't go below $14.

LOL No one that can easily and reliably make $20/hr as a nanny would take a long term job that pays $14.... that is a HUGE difference. If you were talking about say babysitting for a low income family for one night, sure maybe you take a pay cut, feel good cause you helped someone out of a jam, and also made a couple bucks on the side. But to say you are taking a $6/hr hit because the family is "decent" and not too far away is absurd.

Lol. You should have learned by now that the wage is only part of pie.

the pie

[Anonymous]

I think pp's point is, if OP can command $20/h as an experienced nanny, she wouldn't take a job that pays $14/h (with whatever extra pie). She WOULD instead, look for ANOTHER job that paid $20/h or closer (with similar flavored pie).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think pp's point is, if OP can command $20/h as an experienced nanny, she wouldn't take a job that pays $14/h (with whatever extra pie). She WOULD instead, look for ANOTHER job that paid $20/h or closer (with similar flavored pie).

WRONG. One of my jobs gave me and my family frequent FIRST CLASS airline tickets, both domestic and international. Just one of those international tickets was valued at over $10,000. That's right, 10K.

That pie was mighty sweet!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think pp's point is, if OP can command $20/h as an experienced nanny, she wouldn't take a job that pays $14/h (with whatever extra pie). She WOULD instead, look for ANOTHER job that paid $20/h or closer (with similar flavored pie).

Exactly. It's pretty clear.

If you are debating family A for $20 but they are far away and high maintenance/annoying vs family B for $18/hr and they are super sweet with awesome kids and they live 2 blocks away I could see taking $18. But for this same debate to make sense with $14 an hour the $20 an hour family would have to live two states over and be absolutely horrible people to work for. And if that was the case, as PP points out, your decision should not be to accept the $14 an hour job but to find a closer $20 an hour job... if that is truly what you can command with your experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think pp's point is, if OP can command $20/h as an experienced nanny, she wouldn't take a job that pays $14/h (with whatever extra pie). She WOULD instead, look for ANOTHER job that paid $20/h or closer (with similar flavored pie).

WRONG. One of my jobs gave me and my family frequent FIRST CLASS airline tickets, both domestic and international. Just one of those international tickets was valued at over $10,000. That's right, 10K.

That pie was mighty sweet!

Wrong? So you took a lower paying job with a family for a first class airline ticket?

I doubt that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think pp's point is, if OP can command $20/h as an experienced nanny, she wouldn't take a job that pays $14/h (with whatever extra pie). She WOULD instead, look for ANOTHER job that paid $20/h or closer (with similar flavored pie).

Exactly. It's pretty clear.

If you are debating family A for $20 but they are far away and high maintenance/annoying vs family B for $18/hr and they are super sweet with awesome kids and they live 2 blocks away I could see taking $18. But for this same debate to make sense with $14 an hour the $20 an hour family would have to live two states over and be absolutely horrible people to work for. And if that was the case, as PP points out, your decision should not be to accept the $14 an hour job but to find a closer $20 an hour job... if that is truly what you can command with your experience.

Sometimes jobs are not as available as you may think. I know I am worth X per hour, but if the family can't pay that, and I have no other job prospects...

[Anonymous]

I use discretion in how much I charge for families I sit for in the evenings. I have one family with 3 kids are are amazing. They always either have dinner prepared for the kids and I or leave money for take out, the kids are absolutely sweet as can be and super easy, and I enjoy working for them - so I charge $10 per hour. Another family I don't particularly enjoy sitting for but they are coworkers of my parents. They have 3 kids who lack any structure or discipline in their lives and are generally just little terrors- so I charge them $15 per hour.

That being said for families I nanny for I charge $15-$18 per hour, overtime as applicable, and expect everything to be on the books. $15 is my minimum and $18 is on the high end for my area.

[Anonymous]

It is actually not "salary" but hourly rate discretion. Nannies are paid per hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is actually not "salary" but hourly rate discretion. Nannies are paid per hour.

Supposed to be.