Is this a good rate? Need advice.

[Anonymous]

Our nanny has never taken sick days so frankly if a childcare provider is smitten about that I'd be concern. Childcare is not the type of job where you don't show up, or ask to come late or leave early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posted this in another forum, but didn't get too many responses. Just seeing if what we're offering is a fair rate for a nanny. Never used one before, so I'm not sure. Thanks all!

-Fairfax Suburbs, One child, 1.5 years old.
-3 days a week/30 hours guaranteed, $21.00/hour
-Miles driven for child reimbursed
-Snow days, paid
-She agreed to work holidays such as president/vet day, but thanksgiving and other holidays will be off and paid
-No sick/pto leave, but she can make up hours
-No housekeeping...just clean up after child and child's laundry, etc...

Legally, your employee will only be able to "make up hours" within the exact work week as she took unpaid time off for illness or to go on vacation. So if she wanted to take off Friday for a long weekend, you would expect her to work M or Tu. Which is great, except for the little issue of her 2nd job, which is on M and Tu.

Or if she is sick W and Th, she would have to be well enough to come and work 15 hour days F and Sa. Not too likely IMO!

So you need to offer 9 days of PTO/sick leave (prorated based on the typical 3 full weeks offered to FT nannies), and have her use 3 of those days when your family takes vacation.

Oh, and especially with PT work, you'll need to offer guaranteed hours to keep a nanny more than a few months. Generally, unless they are married to wealthy spouses and have no actual need to work, nannies can't afford to lose pay every time their employer leaves town. And you can't legally tell her to just "make up" your vacation time, just like you can't bank or float hours week to week for illness or her own vacation time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our nanny has never taken sick days so frankly if a childcare provider is smitten about that I'd be concern. Childcare is not the type of job where you don't show up, or ask to come late or leave early.

You would be concerned if a nanny communicated the importance of paid sick and vacation days?

Yes, it is the type of job where someone calls in sick. The reason is because the position is generally filled with a human being. Human beings get sick and have other emergencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our nanny has never taken sick days so frankly if a childcare provider is smitten about that I'd be concern. Childcare is not the type of job where you don't show up, or ask to come late or leave early.

You would be concerned if a nanny communicated the importance of paid sick and vacation days?

Yes, it is the type of job where someone calls in sick. The reason is because the position is generally filled with a human being. Human beings get sick and have other emergencies.

Daycare has lots of cross-coverage. If you nanny is "sick" all the time, then get some reliable childcare elsewhere. Nothing is worse than unreliable childcare.