Nanny Schedule/Overtime Hourly vs. Weekly Rates - Input Needed for New Nanny/Contract

[Anonymous]

Don't be silly. Childcare is not the place to go cutting corners.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it does sound like you are trying to get out of paying OT.

If you need 45 hours of care and the cost of paying a nanny OT each week is too much for your budget, it's time to look into a child care center.

[Anonymous]

You can pay a fixed weekly rate but it needs to be based on, and set forth as, an hourly rate and you need to acknowledge that you are paying OT. We pay slightly over $1,000 per week. We usually need 50 hours per week. So, we backed out a standard hourly rate and an overtime rate based on those inputs and that's what we pay.

We also guarantee hours, meaning we pay the same amount every week. I find this easier than tracking hours, and it is also a benefit to our nanny because she receives steady pay even when she doesn't work a full week (because we take a day off, or come home early, or whatever). However, we never ask her to work more than her guaranteed hours, and on the rare occasions when we are late, we kick her some extra.

If you do a fixed salary, you are still paying OT. You may call it something else, but legally it has to be calculated and set forth to include OT.

[Anonymous]

I actually think OP is just trying to make it not cost prohibitive to use the nanny -- at the nannys discretion -- for occasionally babysitting. My nanny would like to work for us as a babysitter on occasional weekend evenings when we have nothing else going on, but we can't afford to pay her the $30/hour that would cost when we can get a perfectly good sitter for $15. (The kids are usually asleep, so we don't need a professional nanny to watch them and it is way easier than her normal gig for us with two mostly awake children.) We love our nanny though, so would be willing to use her at our normal $20/hour rate and just eat the difference; she would love that. Is there a way to have the nanny contract only apply to standard hours during the week and not weekend hours or is anything beyond 40 hours automatically OT covered by the contract? It seems like there should be a way to have truly occasional weekend babysitting exempted; we still meet the DC legal pay requirement in the sense that $20/hour is more than 1.5x minimum wage, so it seems like we should be able to agree to it in the abstract, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think OP is just trying to make it not cost prohibitive to use the nanny -- at the nannys discretion -- for occasionally babysitting. My nanny would like to work for us as a babysitter on occasional weekend evenings when we have nothing else going on, but we can't afford to pay her the $30/hour that would cost when we can get a perfectly good sitter for $15. (The kids are usually asleep, so we don't need a professional nanny to watch them and it is way easier than her normal gig for us with two mostly awake children.) We love our nanny though, so would be willing to use her at our normal $20/hour rate and just eat the difference; she would love that. Is there a way to have the nanny contract only apply to standard hours during the week and not weekend hours or is anything beyond 40 hours automatically OT covered by the contract? It seems like there should be a way to have truly occasional weekend babysitting exempted; we still meet the DC legal pay requirement in the sense that $20/hour is more than 1.5x minimum wage, so it seems like we should be able to agree to it in the abstract, no?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I would think a concern is the pressure on the nanny to accept the babysitting job because she is the employee. And, the upshot is your nanny winds up working additional hours, just by a different name and accordingly for less money. I suspect the law is intended to prevent that sort of thing, even if in your case it might not be abusive.

[Anonymous]

Nanniesnare defined by IRS as hourly employees so that they aren't taken advantage of in a salaried position. Pay as you should and don't take advantage of her by not giving her time and a half after 40 hours. If you want her to not resent you pay her legally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if there is any way around it. Nannies are covered under FLSA so need to be paid an hourly rate plus time and a half for anything over 40 hrs. If you plan to pay your nanny $47,476 or more per year, then you can exempt them from OT. That's part of the new FLSA rules taking effect on 12/1.

This is interesting. Thank you. We do pay more than that!

Careful, you need to meet the "duties test" as well as the wage test. A standard nanny job description will never meet the duties test, so no matter what you pay her per hour she is still and hourly employee legally entitled to overtime.

The suggestion above that you offer a guaranteed pay for the 1st 45 hours per week is a good one and what is commonly done. If you go over 45 you do have to pay at the ot rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think OP is just trying to make it not cost prohibitive to use the nanny -- at the nannys discretion -- for occasionally babysitting. My nanny would like to work for us as a babysitter on occasional weekend evenings when we have nothing else going on, but we can't afford to pay her the $30/hour that would cost when we can get a perfectly good sitter for $15. (The kids are usually asleep, so we don't need a professional nanny to watch them and it is way easier than her normal gig for us with two mostly awake children.) We love our nanny though, so would be willing to use her at our normal $20/hour rate and just eat the difference; she would love that. Is there a way to have the nanny contract only apply to standard hours during the week and not weekend hours or is anything beyond 40 hours automatically OT covered by the contract? It seems like there should be a way to have truly occasional weekend babysitting exempted; we still meet the DC legal pay requirement in the sense that $20/hour is more than 1.5x minimum wage, so it seems like we should be able to agree to it in the abstract, no?

Doesn't work legally. You and the nanny cannot legally agree to waive her overtime entitlement. If you are all agreed you might get away with it, but if the relationship goes downhill she can file a wage dispute for the unpaid overtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think OP is just trying to make it not cost prohibitive to use the nanny -- at the nannys discretion -- for occasionally babysitting. My nanny would like to work for us as a babysitter on occasional weekend evenings when we have nothing else going on, but we can't afford to pay her the $30/hour that would cost when we can get a perfectly good sitter for $15. (The kids are usually asleep, so we don't need a professional nanny to watch them and it is way easier than her normal gig for us with two mostly awake children.) We love our nanny though, so would be willing to use her at our normal $20/hour rate and just eat the difference; she would love that. Is there a way to have the nanny contract only apply to standard hours during the week and not weekend hours or is anything beyond 40 hours automatically OT covered by the contract? It seems like there should be a way to have truly occasional weekend babysitting exempted; we still meet the DC legal pay requirement in the sense that $20/hour is more than 1.5x minimum wage, so it seems like we should be able to agree to it in the abstract, no?

Doesn't work legally. You and the nanny cannot legally agree to waive her overtime entitlement. If you are all agreed you might get away with it, but if the relationship goes downhill she can file a wage dispute for the unpaid overtime.

This. I'm in the same boat. We hire the nanny if we need something difficult, like getting all four kids to bed, but otherwise use cheaper sitters. Same issue: $30 while the kids are sleeping doubles our cost for no good reason besides making the nanny happy. Luckily, she has plenty of other families to sit for, and honestly, it's probably better that she get a break from us even if she's still working.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who uses a blended rate, so hours 1-40 cost more than $20 per hour and then hours 40 plus cost less than $30 per hour. I don't know whether it's legal, but it's what they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if there is any way around it. Nannies are covered under FLSA so need to be paid an hourly rate plus time and a half for anything over 40 hrs. If you plan to pay your nanny $47,476 or more per year, then you can exempt them from OT. That's part of the new FLSA rules taking effect on 12/1.

This is interesting. Thank you. We do pay more than that!

A nanny is non-exempt, regardless of salary, In order to be considered exempt they have make more than $913 a week, AND they have to work in a position that falls within the categories on the list of exempted positions. Nanny is not on that list.