Nanny Holiday Bonus/Raise - not straightforward and could use some advice

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

We employ a wonderful Nanny/Housekeeper who has been with us for about 9 months. We pay her $21 an hour before taxes for a 40 hour work week + time and a half for overtime. She has all holidays, 2 weeks vacation of her choosing and the week between Christmas and New Years off with pay and we pay her health insurance premium and her cell phone. We moved here from NYC about a year ago and are still getting used to the difference in pay for nanny's (NYC it is typical to pay in cash, here, above the table) we paid almost 1/3rd less in NYC for a nanny as compared to what we pay here. Not complaining, the market is the market, just context for everyone. We have 1 child and our nanny is responsible for housekeeping while he is in school.

A couple of items:

1) Her birthday is next week - she has the day off and we're getting her some flowers. Since it's close to the holiday and we're doing a bonus for her, should we do a present instead of cash? I would normally do a $100 amex card. See below for what i was thinking on the bonus.

2) For a bonus we were thinking of 1 week salary is that appropriate? In NYC we did 2 weeks salary, but again, we paid less in NYC and it was standard to give a bigger bonus at the end of the year.

3) We're expecting our 2nd child (our 1st is 5) we haven't told her yet but I am sure she knows as I spent 2 months at home puking in the morning. I was planning on giving her a COLA increase of 3% for the coming year now, should I tell her when I give her the raise that we expect that she'll get an additional increase when the 2nd baby arrives?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Holy shit.... a fair and considerate MB. Kuddos to you.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, you're paying at the top of the market now, though the housekeeping duties usually do add to the cost. If money isn't much of a factor, I would just decide what/when those raises will be and tell her before the new year.

As for the bonus, 1 week is fine.

[Anonymous]

Will your nanny be doing less house work when baby 2 comes along. I think. $2.00 tops for a year and a baby is more than enough. Honesty you are paying a lot to begin with. Im a nanny btw.

[Anonymous]

Another Nanny here, agree that you're definitely paying at the top of the market already. Also, I've worked in both DC and NYC and no way is the market such that you should be paying significantly more in DC. Definitely the opposite. Given that you're already paying so high, everything you proposed re:bonuses and raises seems plenty adequate.

The only thing I would consider is that the addition of the new baby should definitely come with not just a raise, but a reduction in house keeping duties. I think it's reasonable for the raise to reflect this reduction in duties (ie: smaller raise than if she added the baby and kept the same HK duties). I also think it's reasonable that if these HK duties are important to you, for you to discuss frankly with your nanny her ability to care for the newborn and continue accomplishing these duties. If you decide to give her a larger raise to continue them, I think it would also be reasonable to include a trial period for this so that you can ensure that both the care of the baby and the housekeeping are being done to your satisfaction, and then readjust after the trial period if necessary.

[Anonymous]

You should sit down and talk with your nanny. You are at the top of your market (I can't believe that you paid less in DC -- most of my friends in NYC pay in the $35/hour range). In any event, we pay $21 with two kids and light housekeeping/errand running while the kids are in school.

If you paid $23 an hour, honestly, there isn't much room to go up. I agree with the previous posters that you should define responsibilities when the second child is born. Though it might not be a reduction in responsibilities. For example, in our household, we ask that laundry be done but only if the kids are asleep or in school. I'd much rather have a load of wet laundry left at the end of the day, or a pile in a basket then have my kids cooped up in the house while our nanny is folding laundry. I just ask that she remind me so that I don't leave wet laundry overnight.

1 week bonus is fine.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't matter that you started at $21/hr. You can't expect her to take on additional duties (a new baby!) for the same rate just because you overpayed when you hired the nanny. If you're keeping her on, you need to obviously give her more than a 3% raise for an additional kid! That salary and those benefits were agreed upon when you hired her, when you had one kid. Would you do double the work for the same pay?????

[Anonymous]

I think that a 3% raise is fine considering her current rate, but I would also think about taking away a few of the housekeeping duties (or not as often etc) once the new baby arrives.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny but not in your area. I do not know much about the wages in DC or NYC, and people are commenting that you are on the high side of things. If your nanny is housekeeping as well the wage is fair. When the baby comes, I think a $2 raise is pretty general. These people saying you should reduce her duties as a housekeeper I don't nessecailry agree. I care for 1 year old twins who have been sleeping 1 to 2 hours morning and afternoon and it leaves me with 3 to 4 hours free time. This leaves time to housekeep in my opinion. You may have to let her do a bit less while the baby is a newborn but I think she will have enough time to do both. The best thing is to talk to her and decide what is good for the both of you

[Anonymous]

You are paying at the top of the market. You have one very lucky and (surely) happy nanny.

If it were me, I would not be offering much in the way of an increase. As others have said, it's not the nanny's fault that you are already paying so high and when you add work, you generally add more compensation (although I have gotten work "piled on" in my nonprofit job, and it doesn't always come with compensation to match).

Your nanny may be wonderful, but she is replaceable. I would consider finding someone to come in at a lower (but not overly so) rate so that there is room to grow with raises and new responsibilities. There are many wonderful nannies out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are paying at the top of the market. You have one very lucky and (surely) happy nanny.

If it were me, I would not be offering much in the way of an increase. As others have said, it's not the nanny's fault that you are already paying so high and when you add work, you generally add more compensation (although I have gotten work "piled on" in my nonprofit job, and it doesn't always come with compensation to match).

Your nanny may be wonderful, but she is replaceable. I would consider finding someone to come in at a lower (but not overly so) rate so that there is room to grow with raises and new responsibilities. There are many wonderful nannies out there.

Are you seriously suggesting this nanny should lose her job because when she was hired, her employers offered her a higher-than-market wage?

Very cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are paying at the top of the market. You have one very lucky and (surely) happy nanny.

If it were me, I would not be offering much in the way of an increase. As others have said, it's not the nanny's fault that you are already paying so high and when you add work, you generally add more compensation (although I have gotten work "piled on" in my nonprofit job, and it doesn't always come with compensation to match).

Your nanny may be wonderful, but she is replaceable. I would consider finding someone to come in at a lower (but not overly so) rate so that there is room to grow with raises and new responsibilities. There are many wonderful nannies out there.

Are you seriously suggesting this nanny should lose her job because when she was hired, her employers offered her a higher-than-market wage?

Very cold.

Not only cold, but dumb. If you have someone with whom you are happy...with whom you are talking about bonuses and raises...well, it would be dumb to get rid of them! Because, I beg to differ...We've been working at this nanny business for 3.5 years now...and I wouldn't say that there are many wonderful nannies out there. If you have one of the few...I would do nice things to keep them.

[Anonymous]

$100 AMEX card is a nice gift, OP..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You are paying at the top of the market. You have one very lucky and (surely) happy nanny.
If it were me, I would not be offering much in the way of an increase. As others have said, it's not the nanny's fault that you are already paying so high and when you add work, you generally add more compensation (although I have gotten work "piled on" in my nonprofit job, and it doesn't always come with compensation to match).
Your nanny may be wonderful, but she is replaceable. I would consider finding someone to come in at a lower (but not overly so) rate so that there is room to grow with raises and new responsibilities. There are many wonderful nannies out there.

Are you seriously suggesting this nanny should lose her job because when she was hired, her employers offered her a higher-than-market wage?

Im not the PP but I agree that the nanny is replaceable. Just because the employer made a mistake in not understanding the actually market, it doesn't mean that the employer has to live with this mistake and add to it by over inflating the salary even more over the next few years. OP- unless money is no issue to you, you are going to face the issue again and again each year. You already started way high and each year the nanny will expect more (even when the workload later declines). Its in your interest now to figure out what your ceiling is and how long you may want to keep this nanny. Let her know that since you hired her at the high end of the market that you will not be increasing her salary in the future. If she isn't pleased, you can find a great nanny that fits your budget.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. You are paying her a very good salary, but most (good, deserving) nannies get a salary increase once they've been with a family for a year AND when her duties change (ie., a new baby is coming along). AND you refer to her as a nanny/housekeeper. Nannies in the top salary range make between $20-25/hour for one child, but since she is also you're housekeeper, thats an entirely separate job that she's squeezing in.
So, I wouldn't say you're "overpaying" her right now. I would say a $2/hour raise is in order with the addition of a new child, and $1/hour raise as her annual raise.