Rate for Watching Child Overnight

[Anonymous]

Our nanny will be watching our toddler overnight while we go out of town. We've never done this before, and neither she nor we know what pay would be fair.

What is a good rule of thumb? The usual hourly rate times however many hours we are gone? A flat fee?

[Anonymous]

Her usual hourly rate while your child is awake. A flat fee during the child's sleeping hours - usually in the range of $50-75. If the kid wakes up in the night, I usually tack on my usual hourly rate in half hour increments.

For example - if you are out of town 4pm on Friday to 12pm on Saturday, and your kid sleeps 7-7 but wakes up for 10 minutes at 1am (going with $10/hour for your nanny's rate, for simplicity's sake):

Friday 4-7pm $10x3
7pm-7am $75 flat rate
1am kid wakes up $10x.5
7am-12pm $10x5

= $160

Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

Best to ask her. She can tell you.

[Anonymous]

We did, and she kicked the question back. So we're both unsure of what is fair. Hence my question...

[Anonymous]

$100 flat rate for over night, regular hourly rate for ALL other hours + overtime.

[Anonymous]

I know some nannies who charge a night rate of 150.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best to ask her. She can tell you.

If you're going to venture in to the world of posting on online forums, basic reading skills can come in handy. OP already said neither she nor the nanny know what would be appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Her usual hourly rate while your child is awake. A flat fee during the child's sleeping hours - usually in the range of $50-75. If the kid wakes up in the night, I usually tack on my usual hourly rate in half hour increments.

For example - if you are out of town 4pm on Friday to 12pm on Saturday, and your kid sleeps 7-7 but wakes up for 10 minutes at 1am (going with $10/hour for your nanny's rate, for simplicity's sake):

Friday 4-7pm $10x3
7pm-7am $75 flat rate
1am kid wakes up $10x.5
7am-12pm $10x5

= $160

Hope that helps!

This. Exactly.

[Anonymous]

MB here and we have done this many times with our nanny. Our kids are great sleepers so we pay a flat rate for the overnight ($75) and for any hours beyond her regular work week we pay her time and half (overtime) rates.

Once when we left them for a week with her we also gave her an extra day off.

[Anonymous]

I get my usual hourly rate when I stay with my charges overnight. I can't leave and am available to the children if they need me so I'm working! I've never thought that anyone did it differently!

[Anonymous]

OP,

We are about to do our first overnight when I go to the hospital next week for a scheduled delivery w/ DC#2. My nanny didn't seem to have any particularly set fee in mind. I told her that I had read some of the DCUM message boards and proposed the following:

We would pay her her normal rate to watch DC during the normal 8 hr day (works out to about $15/hr after taxes). She would get OT for all hours DC was awake. DC usually goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until 7:30. I proposed a flat rate of $75 for these hours. After tallying this up, it worked out to about $600 additional from her weekly salary for the 3 nights we'll be in the hospital. If this varies a bit, I highly doubt nanny will mention it. I don't usually nickel and dime her (e.g., round up at IRS mileage rate and give her OT even when I've let her go home early). When I told her what it worked out to, she seemed very pleased. We are just relieved that our DC has someone she's comfortable with watching her while I'm in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

I've always been paid my hourly rate. You are paying for her availability to be there, her time away from other obligations, and her skillset should anything happen.

[Anonymous]

I would ONLY recommend a flat sleeping fee if your child is a good sleeper in general and will most likely sleep uninterrupted all night. If you think he will wake up due to teething issues, night terrors, etc. then I think it is only fair to pay her hourly. Also, if she is to stay awake and not sleep herself, then hourly as well.

If she can sleep over, then a flat fee should be fine. Perhaps 1/2 her hourly rate for sleeping hours, then her regular rate for awake hours.

[Anonymous]

However, nanny agencies tend to look down on flat fees for nannies who work overnights.

They mandate that nannies who work overnight jobs still get paid hourly.

It's only nannies who work independently that agree to flat overnight rates.

[Anonymous]

We pay our nanny her exact same hourly rate when she does an overnight for us - and that includes time and a half after 40 hours a week. Why wouldn't we? During my residency, we would sleep at the hospital when we were working overnights and got paid for it.


Some of these "side deals" and bargaining for every penny make us MBs look bad, Ladies.