Nanny raise for second child

[Anonymous]

I have had my nanny for almost 3 years and am very happy with her, and think she is paid very well (and close to the max of what we can afford). I am due with my second child in August and will be on maternity leave through October. Our 3 year old daughter is starting preschool in September, so the nanny will only be watching 2 children for about 3 hours in the afternoon. I know people are known to add $2 or so per hour for the second child, and it will be only be about 15 hours a week when she watches 2 children at a time. Does that sound reasonable to give the nanny a raise of $50 a week?

To raise her $2 an hour for all 45 hours she works, will make her salary extremely high and probably unaffordable for us..

[Anonymous]

Nanny here

Personally, I would be okay with a $1 per hour raise for the 2nd baby especially since Baby1 will be in pre-school most of the time. A $50 per week raise (if she work 45 hours per week) works out to a $1.11 per hour raise which should be acceptable.

Congrats & good luck with your new baby!

[Anonymous]

We are in a very similar situation and the payroll company we work with advised that they most typically see raises of $1 for a new child. We plan to make the raise effective when I go back to work since we don't intend for the nanny to really need to be responsible for both kids at the same time while I am home on leave. While I am on leave, we'll keep our nanny at her current weekly pay, but likely temporarily reduce her hours so that she can come in later since older DC will be in school for the morning. We've run all of this by her and she seems pretty happy with all of it.

[Anonymous]

Will you pay extra on sick days, school holidays, summer? What about all the added mess and laundry and good prep and groceries?

[Anonymous]

*food prep and grocery shopping

[Anonymous]

I doubt she'll be happy with such a small increase for the work and responsibility of taking care of a newborn. But if she thinks that's all you can REALLY afford, who knows?

[Anonymous]

You can do about $1 an hour raise. $2 is not the norm. But $1 an hour more would be a $45 a week increase.

[Anonymous]

$45/week for a newborn. Yah that sounds amazing!!

[Anonymous]

Offer her $1/hr and be sure you are paying OT over 40 hours.

[Anonymous]

"Anonymous
$45/week for a newborn. Yah that sounds amazing!!"

It sounds like it is what OP can afford and given that her oldest is off to school it makes full sense. You don't decrease your pay when your charge gets older and less work do you? It is pay for retaining the job. If the rate is less than what the nanny can make starting over then she should let OP know that and be prepared to walk. But if she is already higher end of the market it may not be the easy.

[Anonymous]

A good nanny does not need a large raise as incentive to handle a preschooler and a newborn. An experienced nanny knows her job is to care for that family's children and if there are two kids p, there is simply less 1:1 attention to go around. It isn't THAT much more work if you've done it before and have some structure in place for the older child.

OP, a $1/hr raise would be sufficient.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I couldn't tell if "$45/week for a newborn. Yah that sounds amazing!!" was sarcastic or not. I would think caring for a newborn is easier than a toddler. They sleep a lot more, and you don't have to run around & chase after them, or struggle too much with having to always keep them busy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I couldn't tell if "$45/week for a newborn. Yah that sounds amazing!!" was sarcastic or not. I would think caring for a newborn is easier than a toddler. They sleep a lot more, and you don't have to run around & chase after them, or struggle too much with having to always keep them busy.

You should actually try it, and report back (after 60 days) how "easy" it is.
I think she'll have a better offer and ditch you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I couldn't tell if "$45/week for a newborn. Yah that sounds amazing!!" was sarcastic or not. I would think caring for a newborn is easier than a toddler. They sleep a lot more, and you don't have to run around & chase after them, or struggle too much with having to always keep them busy.

Yeah, it was sarcastic. Providing good infant care is hard work. A token raise is insulting, unless they're really poor. But in that case, the nanny would already know they can't afford much.
It's your "upper middle class" parents who pay next to nothing, so they keep looking for new (dumb) nannies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I couldn't tell if "$45/week for a newborn. Yah that sounds amazing!!" was sarcastic or not. I would think caring for a newborn is easier than a toddler. They sleep a lot more, and you don't have to run around & chase after them, or struggle too much with having to always keep them busy.

Yeah, it was sarcastic. Providing good infant care is hard work. A token raise is insulting, unless they're really poor. But in that case, the nanny would already know they can't afford much.
It's your "upper middle class" parents who pay next to nothing, so they keep looking for new (dumb) nannies.

I should clarify, there are plenty of upper middle class families
who will pay well when they see the value of top-notch childcare/education.

After all, you are laying the foundation
for their child's entire future.