ISO advice re nanny share minimum wage

[Anonymous]

Hi Moms,

Our family is starting a 2-family nanny share. The nanny works 45 hours a week and we are planning to pay her $15/hr. When we figure out the base rate per hour including overtime, it comes out to less than minimum wage PER FAMILY ($7.11/hour base and $10.66 overtime). Is this legal or do we need to up the salary a bit so that each family is paying minimum wage individually?

Thanks for your guidance!

[Anonymous]

I believe this is legal.

[Anonymous]

I don't see how it would be legal. In the eyes of the law you are each her employers individually, hence both parties having their own EIN and filing your own taxes. I would think you are both also required to pay at least minimum wage.

[Anonymous]

It's legal. Minimum wage is the minimum wage an employee must be paid. The number of employers is irrelevant. Your contract with the nanny needs to document the wage she will get hourly. It does not need to document who is paying what.

Of course, you should document the rate she will get if she is only watching one child. Even if that rate is the same as for two children. It cant legally (or reasonablely!) just be half.

[Anonymous]

You found yourselves a real bargain. Hope it works out for you all.

[Anonymous]

It's legal. Her income has to be minimum wage. It's irrelevant that her paycheck comes in two parts.

[Anonymous]

Legal. But if it's one kid, need to pay at LEAST min wage for that time.

[Anonymous]

Legal or not, the fact that you find yourself offering a wage that requires you to ask this question says it all. Unless your nanny is young and inexperienced you are underpaying her. She will figure it out. And she will find a better job. Just an FYI. That's exactly what I did her position and now I make an extra $5/hour.

[nannydebsays]

I believe it is legal. But unless you live in a very low COL area and your nanny has NO prior experience other than babysitting, and your kids are very very low maintenance, you are underpaying.



Although many MB's here will argue otherwise, a nanny share rate is not fiscally equal to daycare rates. Most knowledgeable nannies will happily give each family a discount off her regular rate when considering a share, but will not "split the difference" on her regular rate for a share.

IOW, if nanny can make $15/hour working for a single family, she might offer a discount to $12/hour PER FAMILY in a nanny share.

So if your potential hire can make say...$10/hour working for one family, she'd likely set her nanny share rate at $8 per family per hour, with OT kicking in after 40 hours, bringing each family's rate to $12/hour. Which means that instead of both families paying $337.5/week, you would each be paying $380/week

So, yes, you can pay her that wage and be prepared to lose her when she finds a better paying job.

[Anonymous]

Legal. We did it and asked the same question.

[Anonymous]

nannydebsays wrote:

Although many MB's here will argue otherwise, a nanny share rate is not fiscally equal to daycare rates. Most knowledgeable nannies will happily give each family a discount off her regular rate when considering a share, but will not "split the difference" on her regular rate for a share.

IOW, if nanny can make $15/hour working for a single family, she might offer a discount to $12/hour PER FAMILY in a nanny share.

So if your potential hire can make say...$10/hour working for one family, she'd likely set her nanny share rate at $8 per family per hour, with OT kicking in after 40 hours, bringing each family's rate to $12/hour. Which means that instead of both families paying $337.5/week, you would each be paying $380/week

So, yes, you can pay her that wage and be prepared to lose her when she finds a better paying job.

I wouldn't compare a nanny share to daycare rates, but I think the more broadly accepted comparison is to two kids from a single household. Most commonly, you will see a 10-15% surcharge over what a nanny can get for the same amount of children, not a discount from a doubled rate!

[Anonymous]

Depends nowhere she is. Final pay for week is over 700 and avg rate is almost 16. Not out of line for many parts of this area. Totally disagree that you arrive at a share rate by slightly discounting the one family rate and having both families pay that anount. In my experience it is exactly the opposite - there is a slight mark up over Nanny's normal rate and then the the families split that higher rate. The former situation would result in a 12/hr nanny earning 20/hr all of a sudden simply because she is working in a share. That makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

"on where", not "nowhere"

[Anonymous]

Nanny Deb, I usually respect your advice but on this one you are way off. Our nanny gets $19/hr in our share. If she were to look after one child, according to your logic, she would be making around $11 and that is absurd. She's an excellent nanny and her salary for one child would be at least $16.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny working a share with 2 families (13mo old and 16 mo old). I generally charge $17-18 an hour for one family. In a share I charge $13 per family so essentially make $26 an hour. This is my third share and all have worked about the same. Working with 2 sets of parents makes the job a lot more difficult. It has a lot more to do with the 2 sets of parents and their expectations and schedules than the fact that there are more children.