Please don't get angry that good nannies deserve a competitive wage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your worth as an employee is what someone is willing to pay you. Agree it is not worth it to child care for a few hours without a premium pay but people demanding $30 an hour may not be reasonable. Remember a parent has to earn much more than that including paying for their taxes and other expenses and what is left over is what they can pay you with.

And the other hand, if a nanny can get $30 an hour from a wealthier employer, why would she turn it down?

And if the nanny is overpricing herself, she will learn that when she isn't offered positions. No point in arguing about it.

A nanny should get as much as she can but if the market rate is less, than you are going to have a much harder time getting a job and the expectations will be higher. For a nanny to say she wants $30 an hour and not willing to do anything to help around the house is a bit much in terms of demands when someone else is willing to do the same job only better for less. You see people rambling about job creep when you are basically replacing the Mom at home so she can work to pay your salary, so helping out more is a reasonable request. If a parent is paying $30 an hour, they have to have a very high income to cover that as they still have to pay taxes, work expenses, etc. so they have to be making twice that much. Some parents are, some aren't. But, you can demand what ever you want and some will pay, but many will not see that as a fair price and pass on you. Even wealthy families may not be paying $30 an hour.

The thing is....market rate is something that is yelled on this site often but in reality market rate is super broad and basically a way for parents to justify paying low. Care.com has the market rate for one child in this area at $16 and 2 kids at $18. Sorry but that is babysitter prices and I would never accept that low of a wage. Ppl in nanny shares feel they can pay $10 an hour per family and that is suppose to be market. I set my price based on the families I want to attract...upper middle class with a steady income who can actually afford a nanny with no issues. I do not negotiate with families who display financial concerns bc these are the families that will nickel and dime you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your worth as an employee is what someone is willing to pay you. Agree it is not worth it to child care for a few hours without a premium pay but people demanding $30 an hour may not be reasonable. Remember a parent has to earn much more than that including paying for their taxes and other expenses and what is left over is what they can pay you with.

And the other hand, if a nanny can get $30 an hour from a wealthier employer, why would she turn it down?

And if the nanny is overpricing herself, she will learn that when she isn't offered positions. No point in arguing about it.

A nanny should get as much as she can but if the market rate is less, than you are going to have a much harder time getting a job and the expectations will be higher. For a nanny to say she wants $30 an hour and not willing to do anything to help around the house is a bit much in terms of demands when someone else is willing to do the same job only better for less. You see people rambling about job creep when you are basically replacing the Mom at home so she can work to pay your salary, so helping out more is a reasonable request. If a parent is paying $30 an hour, they have to have a very high income to cover that as they still have to pay taxes, work expenses, etc. so they have to be making twice that much. Some parents are, some aren't. But, you can demand what ever you want and some will pay, but many will not see that as a fair price and pass on you. Even wealthy families may not be paying $30 an hour.

Excuse me, but no. I’ve had positions in which I was “replacing Mom” and Dad too. I had full authority to decide everything. It’s apples and oranges. If you want to be replaced, find someone comfortable with that level of authority and pay a decent wage for it. If not, negotiate for what duties and authority is relevant to your positions, and negotiate the rate, or find someone else who wants what you can offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is a good breakdown:

http://www.nannies4hire.com/tips/1045-how-much-do-i-pay-a-nanny.htm

That’s a nqtional survey... We all know that it’s not relevant to DC metro prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And understand that there is no shame in admitting that you cannot afford a nanny.

We seem to get so many angry and frustrated posters when they realize they cannot afford a good nanny. Or they get upset because they can't find a nanny who will fit their exact needed time frame (like only 3:00PM to 5:30PM for $20 an hour).

It is nothing to get angry about or fight online about. It just is.

If you think you can get a good nanny for four children for $15 an hour - try it.

I don't see it as anger. People have different experience with the nanny market on both ends, and that's just the way it is. It gets unpleasant on both ends when people begin to insinuate that just because your experience is different from their point of view, then there MUST be something wrong with it. I.e. the $30/hr nanny MUST be an outlier, or a $18/hr nanny MUST be an illegal alien with tertiary syphilis chained in the basement.

The truth of the matter is that there may very well be a group of nannies making $30/hr. Let it be. And there is (that I know for a fact because it's all over our neighborhood) a very large group of good nannies making $18-$20 hr. There are a lot of shares where nannies make $20-22/hr. Just because something is different from your claim doesn't make it wrong. It just makes it a big market with lots of buyers and lots of sellers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a good breakdown:

http://www.nannies4hire.com/tips/1045-how-much-do-i-pay-a-nanny.htm

That’s a nqtional survey... We all know that it’s not relevant to DC metro prices.

Not to mention, the results were from 2012. Here are the results from the 2017 survey

https://nanny.org/2017-ina-nanny-salary-benefits-survey-results/

[Anonymous]

Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

She bought a townhouse with the help of her kids (she’s older) and using her pay stubs for the bank. She rents out a basement suite to someone as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

She bought a townhouse with the help of her kids (she’s older) and using her pay stubs for the bank. She rents out a basement suite to someone as well.

So fortunate that her children are able to help support her on your low wages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

She bought a townhouse with the help of her kids (she’s older) and using her pay stubs for the bank. She rents out a basement suite to someone as well.

So fortunate that her children are able to help support her on your low wages.

If it’s one child $18 is not low with overtime. Would $20 be better, of course, but there are nannies making $15 and under which is severely low in my opinion. In all fairness it’s not the employers responsibility to make sure her nanny is making enough to live. Retail and places like McDonald’s pay minimum wage which is not enough to live on. Even county teachers are well underpaid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

For another perspective, we pay our nanny $27 an hour for one child, on the books, and pay her healthcare insurance as well as have a car for her to use all the time.

We wanted a college graduate with teaching experience and that is what we got. I honestly could not be happier with her. My mother is a preschool teacher and cares for two kids from 3 to 5 and earns $35 an hour.

I see OP's point. You do the best you can on your budget and shouldn't get angry or upset about what you can and cannot afford - it just is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

For another perspective, we pay our nanny $27 an hour for one child, on the books, and pay her healthcare insurance as well as have a car for her to use all the time.

We wanted a college graduate with teaching experience and that is what we got. I honestly could not be happier with her. My mother is a preschool teacher and cares for two kids from 3 to 5 and earns $35 an hour.

I see OP's point. You do the best you can on your budget and shouldn't get angry or upset about what you can and cannot afford - it just is what it is.

Thank you for posting this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

She bought a townhouse with the help of her kids (she’s older) and using her pay stubs for the bank. She rents out a basement suite to someone as well.

So fortunate that her children are able to help support her on your low wages.

If wages were as high as you’d like then a nanny would only be for one percenters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

She bought a townhouse with the help of her kids (she’s older) and using her pay stubs for the bank. She rents out a basement suite to someone as well.

So fortunate that her children are able to help support her on your low wages.

If wages were as high as you’d like then a nanny would only be for one percenters.

Considering she's an older woman, you really ought to pay her a living wage. Instead, she must depend on her children and a housemate to survive. And you have bargain childcare. Would it really break the bank to pay her an additional dollar or two an hour? Pay her what she's worth to you. No doubt your life would turn upside down if you had to replace her, not to mention your child's life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, you find the best candidate for the wage you offer. For perspective We pay our nanny $18 an hour and proper overtime and paid vacation and we just did the taxes and her W2 it ended up at $41k in wages including taxes. Which does not include employer federal tax contribution. So that’s another 6-7k we paid. That’s not bad considering it’s one easy kid, run of the house, 8 hours, no driving and we come home early regularly and let her go.

If she's happy, that's all you need. But I still wonder what her monthly budget looks like. Does she have to live with someone to make ends meet?

She bought a townhouse with the help of her kids (she’s older) and using her pay stubs for the bank. She rents out a basement suite to someone as well.

So fortunate that her children are able to help support her on your low wages.

If wages were as high as you’d like then a nanny would only be for one percenters.

Yes, and would that really be an issue? Having a nanny is the most elite form of childcare. Someone comes into YOUR home and raises your child YOUR way. Nobody gripes that everyone should have a personal chef or a chauffeur, yet most people are able to feed themselves and get where they need to be. If you can't afford a nanny, that's not a reflection on your success or you as a person, it just means that you don't earn enough money to pay someone else a yearly salary. Stop trying to pay people next to nothing for a luxury.