Nanny share but starting with one baby for several months - best way to set up

[Anonymous]

I am setting up a nanny share - I will need care starting in August but the other family will not need full time care until November. During the interim period (August-November), we are going to see if the nanny wants to pick up our 4yo and watch her for 2 hours after camp/school so she can make more money. Also during the interim period, there is the possibility that the other parent will want to use the nanny for occasional care (she is on maternity leave, but needs to go to the doctor, so maybe will have the nanny watch her baby for a few hours).

I realize that some will say that we should just pay the nanny the full freight for two children for the 3 month period, however this is not economically feasible for us. However, we want to be fair and straightforward. She is aware that the arrangement will involve an initial rate and a 2 baby rate once the second baby starts. What I'm thinking is having an initial period outlined in the contract with a different base rate, which would depend on whether or not she wants to pick up our older child. If she picks up the older child, the rate will be a blended rate for the day, so that we can base the overtime calculation off of that.

But what about the other parent using her for a few hours here and there during that period? Should this even be written into the contract at this point?

Once parent #2 starts, the nanny would be guaranteed the two child rate from there on out, regardless of sickness, vacation by one parent, etc.

Should we just make two separate contracts here?

TIA - I am new to all of this, so apologies if these are dumb questions. I searched for other posts that might be helpful, but didn't see anything...

[Anonymous]

What did she say she'd like to do?

[Anonymous]

This sounds like an enormous headache, OP. If you gave us numbers (and ignored the trolls) it would be easier to help...

So let's say in the share each family will be paying $10/hr for a rate of $20/hr total. While she is with your child(ren) only she should be paid $15-$16/hr from you. If the other family wants to include their child in the day, you would each pay your share rate for those hours ($10/hr each) and you would go back to your single-child rate ($15-$16/hr) for hours the other family was not using her. I hope that helps? Please know that whatever your actual numbers are it is NOT okay to pay her only your share rate for the months until the share starts. Even if she agreed to it you will be taking advantage of her and she will be bitter about it and will tell the whole neighborhood (I hear this kind of complaint a lot among the nannies I see at the playgrounds).

[Anonymous]

No bueno OP.

[Anonymous]

Fair is to pay the full rate and except when your older one is home she is included in the price.

[Anonymous]

I would have made this very clear when interviewing and only accepted candidates who consented. The reason is, even if you said one baby would not start until November, she may or may not have assumed you would pay the two child rate - why risk the possibility of the confusion??

First, do anything possible to pay the two child rate. Only settle for something less if you have absolutely no other options. We don't care for blending and averaging around these parts, it gets too confusing. Just make sure its fair. In your contract be sure to show your work so everyone is clear how the math works. Finally, set a retainer for the maternity leave help. Guarantee her x number of hours per week. That way she has a stable income and a stable routine. If family B chooses not to use her help, she still gets paid.

Do email her with the same message and see what she suggests, it is per paycheck and she may think of something that you did not.

Kudos for coming here to ask for help. Good luck

[Anonymous]

So, just to be clear, the nanny has not signed a contract yet but has accepted the position? Yikes, if so. I hope you have not turned away other candidates. This could be a deal breaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have made this very clear when interviewing and only accepted candidates who consented. The reason is, even if you said one baby would not start until November, she may or may not have assumed you would pay the two child rate - why risk the possibility of the confusion??

First, do anything possible to pay the two child rate. Only settle for something less if you have absolutely no other options. We don't care for blending and averaging around these parts, it gets too confusing. Just make sure its fair. In your contract be sure to show your work so everyone is clear how the math works. Finally, set a retainer for the maternity leave help. Guarantee her x number of hours per week. That way she has a stable income and a stable routine. If family B chooses not to use her help, she still gets paid.

Do email her with the same message and see what she suggests, it is per paycheck and she may think of something that you did not.

Kudos for coming here to ask for help. Good luck

Thank you - this is a great idea. I will speak to the other family about a retainer as I agree it seems the only way to keep things straightforward and fair. And yes, we were very clear during the interview process. All rates will be fair for the work that is being done (certainly not planning to pay only half of the two child rate for the first 3 months, will be paying a competitive rate for 1 plus extra IF she decides to pick up my older child). We are meeting in person to hopefully finalize and get a signed contract.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is how our nanny share is/was. It's not uncommon in our area for a family to start with a 1:1 nanny at three months and go to a share later, but of course your nanny must be on board with that at hire. Ours involved two separate contracts--one covered first four months, with nanny taking care of baby 1:1 for most of day and helping with family's older child for two set hours per day. One child rate for baby hours, two child share rate for older child hours, all spelled out. When we joined, there was a new contract to spell out share setup. Two child rate for all hours--same two hours with older child and then our time filled the balance of the day. Had they found a share family who needed FT, agreement was no more older child care.

The maternity leave part is a bit messy, but I like the retainer solution. We did start PT in our share for a short period because of work schedule, and I guess that more or less amounted to the same thing, though we had set hours--other family paid one child hours less the hours we needed at the one child rate, and then half of the two child rate for the hours we needed. It got simpler when we went to full-time and all hours were at the same rate, just paid by different people depending on time, though. Main key to making it work is writing it all down and being sure everyone agrees. (The other family in our share also proposed this all at the interview stage since they wanted solo care but knew they wanted to transition to share care, too.)

[Anonymous]

I would not pay the full share rate when she is only taking care of your child. I would pay her $16-$17/hour for that time period. Of course, it matters what your share rate is. If it's $18/hour, then 1) that's too low, and 2) the one family rate is not going to be much lower.

If your share rate is around $20/hour, though, that sounds perfect. You could then scale it back to $16-$17/hour for when she only has your child. If you pay her $20/hour starting now, then in November her work load doubles, but she is still making the same amount -- I just don't think that's good for morale.

[Anonymous]

The other family needs to pay a retainer at minimum, if not their half of the full rate for the privilege of maintaining their spot and having drop in care. They can't have it both ways, and this really doesn't start off the share very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is how our nanny share is/was. It's not uncommon in our area for a family to start with a 1:1 nanny at three months and go to a share later, but of course your nanny must be on board with that at hire. Ours involved two separate contracts--one covered first four months, with nanny taking care of baby 1:1 for most of day and helping with family's older child for two set hours per day. One child rate for baby hours, two child share rate for older child hours, all spelled out. When we joined, there was a new contract to spell out share setup. Two child rate for all hours--same two hours with older child and then our time filled the balance of the day. Had they found a share family who needed FT, agreement was no more older child care.

The maternity leave part is a bit messy, but I like the retainer solution. We did start PT in our share for a short period because of work schedule, and I guess that more or less amounted to the same thing, though we had set hours--other family paid one child hours less the hours we needed at the one child rate, and then half of the two child rate for the hours we needed. It got simpler when we went to full-time and all hours were at the same rate, just paid by different people depending on time, though. Main key to making it work is writing it all down and being sure everyone agrees. (The other family in our share also proposed this all at the interview stage since they wanted solo care but knew they wanted to transition to share care, too.)

OP here - thanks for chiming in. So as far as the older child rate vs. the baby rate, the only reason that I was thinking to do a blended rate for the whole day was to make the overtime calculation make sense. So instead of saying for example, we would pay you $17/hour for 7 hours, then $20/hour for 2 hours, and then trying to calculate the overtime hour based on one of those base rates, we would say (since the hours for the older child would be fixed), we would pay you $17.67/hour, that includes 2 hours of watching older child, and the overtime hour would be paid at $26.50. Maybe this isn't the right way of doing this.

[Anonymous]

22:20 again. We pay a blended rate of $22, which is officially $20 per hour plus time-and-a-half for OT hours (anything past 8 hours in a day) based on our schedule with all hours at same rate. Single child rate was $17 but I don't know if their hours were the same pre-share so OT math might work out differently on that. I'm actually not sure how they calculated OT with respect to the two hours of older child care, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is how our nanny share is/was. It's not uncommon in our area for a family to start with a 1:1 nanny at three months and go to a share later, but of course your nanny must be on board with that at hire. Ours involved two separate contracts--one covered first four months, with nanny taking care of baby 1:1 for most of day and helping with family's older child for two set hours per day. One child rate for baby hours, two child share rate for older child hours, all spelled out. When we joined, there was a new contract to spell out share setup. Two child rate for all hours--same two hours with older child and then our time filled the balance of the day. Had they found a share family who needed FT, agreement was no more older child care.

The maternity leave part is a bit messy, but I like the retainer solution. We did start PT in our share for a short period because of work schedule, and I guess that more or less amounted to the same thing, though we had set hours--other family paid one child hours less the hours we needed at the one child rate, and then half of the two child rate for the hours we needed. It got simpler when we went to full-time and all hours were at the same rate, just paid by different people depending on time, though. Main key to making it work is writing it all down and being sure everyone agrees. (The other family in our share also proposed this all at the interview stage since they wanted solo care but knew they wanted to transition to share care, too.)

OP here - thanks for chiming in. So as far as the older child rate vs. the baby rate, the only reason that I was thinking to do a blended rate for the whole day was to make the overtime calculation make sense. So instead of saying for example, we would pay you $17/hour for 7 hours, then $20/hour for 2 hours, and then trying to calculate the overtime hour based on one of those base rates, we would say (since the hours for the older child would be fixed), we would pay you $17.67/hour, that includes 2 hours of watching older child, and the overtime hour would be paid at $26.50. Maybe this isn't the right way of doing this.

You are making things way too freaking complicated. Your nanny would have to be a rocket scientist to follow all of your mathematical acrobatics. Pay a rate for the job you are offering (care for baby, pick up older kid) and be done. $17.50/hour. Bam. Calculate the OT based on that rate. Easy. Now walk away from the calculator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is how our nanny share is/was. It's not uncommon in our area for a family to start with a 1:1 nanny at three months and go to a share later, but of course your nanny must be on board with that at hire. Ours involved two separate contracts--one covered first four months, with nanny taking care of baby 1:1 for most of day and helping with family's older child for two set hours per day. One child rate for baby hours, two child share rate for older child hours, all spelled out. When we joined, there was a new contract to spell out share setup. Two child rate for all hours--same two hours with older child and then our time filled the balance of the day. Had they found a share family who needed FT, agreement was no more older child care.

The maternity leave part is a bit messy, but I like the retainer solution. We did start PT in our share for a short period because of work schedule, and I guess that more or less amounted to the same thing, though we had set hours--other family paid one child hours less the hours we needed at the one child rate, and then half of the two child rate for the hours we needed. It got simpler when we went to full-time and all hours were at the same rate, just paid by different people depending on time, though. Main key to making it work is writing it all down and being sure everyone agrees. (The other family in our share also proposed this all at the interview stage since they wanted solo care but knew they wanted to transition to share care, too.)

OP here - thanks for chiming in. So as far as the older child rate vs. the baby rate, the only reason that I was thinking to do a blended rate for the whole day was to make the overtime calculation make sense. So instead of saying for example, we would pay you $17/hour for 7 hours, then $20/hour for 2 hours, and then trying to calculate the overtime hour based on one of those base rates, we would say (since the hours for the older child would be fixed), we would pay you $17.67/hour, that includes 2 hours of watching older child, and the overtime hour would be paid at $26.50. Maybe this isn't the right way of doing this.

You are making things way too freaking complicated. Your nanny would have to be a rocket scientist to follow all of your mathematical acrobatics. Pay a rate for the job you are offering (care for baby, pick up older kid) and be done. $17.50/hour. Bam. Calculate the OT based on that rate. Easy. Now walk away from the calculator.

It's called the Scammer's Payment Plan and attempts to make a stupid nanny think she's getting paid more than she's getting paid. One more to way to take advantage of nannies.

This would be illegal anywhere else.