Need advice from both nannies and parents. Please help!

[Anonymous]

so your nanny's time off is calculated into her pay? what does that mean?
she needs to find an employer who values her more

[Anonymous]

1) I have no idea whether your nanny is fairly compensated for your area. It varies widely. It also doesn’t really matter. The right pay is the amount that is appealing to the candidate you want to hire. If you like this nanny and are open to paying more then negotiate. If not, start looking around for someone who charges what you can afford. If you can’t find anyone in your price range that you like and trust, then reconsider paying more.


2) You and your nanny are not on the same page. Whether you continue with this nanny or move on to someone new, you need to clear some things up:
Nannies are hourly employees. They must be paid an hourly wage for all hours worked, in accordance with overtime laws in your state. You have other legal responsibilities as an employer that you need to pay correctly (state and local taxes and SS contribution, etc.). You are clearly not paying legally, which puts you at risk for an audit, esp. if your nanny gets angry that she feels unappreciated and decides to report you. There are lots of companies that manage nanny taxes and payroll (HomeWork Solutions is a good one). I would hire one of them to deal with all that.

Whatever you do, you should also sit down and create a detailed contract that clearly states what duties and compensation nanny is agreeing to so that whoever your nanny is, you both know exactly what you are signing up for.

[Anonymous]

You have been under paying her by 173 a month. For 6 months that’s over 1,000. You need to make this right with her op. If I was you I would give her 1,200 and a raise to 18 per hr which is 576 per week. Start paying weekly per hr . Making sure her 32 hours are guaranteed.

[Anonymous]

I think I figured out what OP is doing.

At 32 hours per week, there are 1,664 work hours in a 52-week year. OP's nanny is off for 7 holidays and two weeks of vacation (since she works 4 days per week, that's 8 days of vacation). The 7 holidays + 8 vacation days = 120 working hours.

OP is not paying her nanny for the holidays and vacation days. Instead of paying her for 1,664 work hours per year (52 weeks x 32 hours per week), she is paying her for 1,544 hours per year (1,664 - the 120 hours off).

1,544 hours x 16/ hour = $24,704
$24,704 / 12 months = $2058 per month

I know OP said she's paying $2,045/month...but it's too close not to be the case.

Confirm or deny, OP. And if you deny, you need to show us how you came to $2,045 per month.

[Anonymous]

OP. Every month has approximately 4.3 weeks. If she is working 32 hours a week at $16/hour, her monthly pay should be $2,201.60.

So you are cheating her out of a significant amount of money. This is why you need to guarantee her 32 hours a week at $16/hour and pay her weekly.

You should also pay her the money you cheated her out of, and pay her for holidays she would normally work.

You screwed this up OP. Stop over complicating things, pay her 32 hours a week 52 weeks a year at the agreed upon rate of $16/hour.

[Anonymous]

OP, I nanny (as a live-in) all over the country. Rate doesn’t matter nearly as much as being clear on terms.

No unpaid holidays
No unpaid vacation
Guaranteed hours every week
Hourly pay; not weekly, monthly or yearly salary
Legal pay (w2, not 1099)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to add that I don’t live in dc but Wyoming. And the rate she had on her profile was 10-20 an hour.

In the US nannies ARE HOURLY employees, per Federal law, and paid OVERTIME, hourly rate +one half hourly rate, for all hours over 40/week. Some states OT is over 8 hours a day. So at $16/hr she should be making $640 for a 40 hour week before taxes and FICA, which you should be taking out. Does she understand this?

[Anonymous]

The math here is a hot mess. OP, the correct and legal way to do it is to only talk about an hourly rate, and separately discuss paid/unpaid holidays, vacations, sick days, guaranteed hours. Usually if people in this forum say $16 an hour they mean $16 for each hour actually worked, but also each hour of paid time off. Very simple example is that Monday is a paid holiday and Tuesday-Friday each have 8 hours of work. Nanny gets paid $16 x 32 working hours + $16 x 8 holiday hours = $640. None of us would say that nanny’s rate is $20 because $640/32 actual work hours = 20.

But the problem you are asking about here is communication. Why did you and nanny set up the payment this way? I assume it’s for ease of finances, either you proposed it because of how your household gets paid or she asked for it because of how her bills are structured. So have all the financial discussions on the same basis of the payment amount for each 4 weeks or month or whatever it is. Don’t flip back and forth with some hourly rate calculation. If you continue with this weekly payment structure, give raises as $x per week too.

The underpayment by 20 or 200(?) is your mistake and your nanny is right to ask you to correct. However the subsequent asking for raise from $16 to $20 very quickly is a bit of a yellow flag for me. It would indicate to me either nanny is financially illiterate or she is looking to get as much money as she can out of you. However, I don’t imagine the nanny market is super big in Wyoming so you may want to work things out with this nanny if she is good with your kid. But you need to sit down and mutually agree on terms like payment, holidays, hours, reviews etc and then write them down! People call it a contract but it doesn’t have to be some formal thing drafted by lawyers and signed off by notaries, just a written description of the job basics that is signed by both sides, which you can use as a starting point for any future discussion.

[Anonymous]

As far as I can tell, OP pays $16/hour for 32 hours/week, which is $512/week. Where it gets iffy is her $2048/4 weeks - is OP paying every four weeks, or every month (wrongly assuming that 4 weeks = 1 month, in which case she is only paying for 48 weeks of the year, not 52)? Your nanny should have guaranteed hours, so the fact that she gets vacation or sick days doesn’t affect her wage. Which should be hourly. If you aren’t paying your nanny $16/hour x 32 hours/week x 52 weeks, you are short-changing her.