Handling Days Off for Part-Time Nanny

[Anonymous]

Having read some of the posts here, I'm a little afraid to post this - it's a tough crowd on this forum!! Please forgive me if this has already been covered elsewhere.

I would like to hire a nanny to assist my mother two days a week in looking after my 9 month old son. I will pay $20/hour. I am wondering what most folks do with regard to paid days off in this situation. Do part-time nannies expect a certain number of paid days off? Should I pay her for each federal holiday, or more than that? Also, what if we go on vacation - do I need to pay her even if she doesn't come over for those days, since it was my decision to go on holiday?

Also, what would be a reasonable Christmas bonus in this situation? I was thinking one day's pay, but not sure.

Thanks very much for any advice you can offer.

[Anonymous]

It's not typical to get vacation days in a part time gig. But, it is customary to guarantee hours and pay her holidays if they fall on a day she usually would have worked. Sick days are also not customary but it would be beneficial to you if you did since you don't want someone who's sick to come over and get your baby sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not typical to get vacation days in a part time gig. But, it is customary to guarantee hours and pay her holidays if they fall on a day she usually would have worked. Sick days are also not customary but it would be beneficial to you if you did since you don't want someone who's sick to come over and get your baby sick.

+1 Our DD's nanny works Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and we pay for any legal holiday that falls on those days. We don't do sick time and nanny has never been sick.

[Anonymous]

Your mother should be enjoying her retirement and not work for free to watch your baby.

Get a full time nanny and leave your mom alone.

[Anonymous]

I did offer paid vacation days to our part time nanny; I hoped it would help with retention. Since your mom is always there anyway, you may not need to do it. I gave two weeks paid vacation, which in our case was three days a week, so six days total.

She only got paid holidays if they fell on her work days, and if you are going to give paid holidays, I would probably avoid hiring someone who works Mondays as one of her two days.

I did not give separate sick time, but did give guaranteed hours (she got paid if we were away).

[Anonymous]

I work 2 part time jobs (well one almost full time. 25 hrs and 38 hrs).

I get all federal holidays paid off, plus day before thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The day after thanksgiving, Christmas and Nye.
I get 4 days off from my two day job (so 2 weeks from them). And a full two weeks (10 days) from my three day a week job for vacation. I also get all sick time paid, they don't want me working sick. And if my families go on vacation they pay me, as I'm not working.

[Anonymous]

Leave the mom alone and get a nanny

[Anonymous]

You are already offering an extremely high salary for being a Grandmother's helper.

Another PP brought up a good point OP, you may not even need your mother at that rate.

But to stay on topic, no you do not need to offer paid vacations or time for such part-time hours, plus like I stated before, you are already offering an amazing salary as it is.

[Anonymous]

>Your mother should be enjoying her retirement and not work for free to watch your baby.

Haha, she would never allow that!! We tried to tell her that same thing, but my mom made it very clear she expects to take care of my baby And I love having her there, but I do want her to have some help, hence the grandma's helper.

Thanks everyone for the responses.

[Anonymous]

I once had a part-time nanny and provided sick-leave and annual leave proportionate to her hours worked.

So, if your nanny works 20 hours a week, I'd suggest 20 hours of sick-leave and 40 hours of annual leave.

[Anonymous]

$20? Why so much? The standard rate in my neighborhood is $15-$18/hr. It's best to start at a fair rate that will allow you to raise in future if you're really happy with her.

We don't have an "official" sick policy but I personally don't want our nanny coming in when she's very ill. For instance, a few weeks ago she let me know she had a slight fever and cold symptoms but felt ok to work and it was up to me to make the call. I do pay her when sick. She's been out twice in 2 years.

We only pay major federal holidays as we aren't government employees and don't adhere to that schedule so she has had to work on some of the holidays but not the major ones. We do guarantee her hours and pay her when we go on vacation.

[Anonymous]

For two days a week you absolutely don't have to provide anything beyond 1:1 compensation for hours worked. If she comes over every Monday and you don't need her on an upcoming Monday because of a holiday then don't pay her. Just let her know what days she can expect off.

Nannies are on here trying to argue for all kind of extravagant benefits but truth be told workers in the same skill/education class as nannies don't get near the benefits that these nannies are asking for nor are they paid as much. Many jobs will send you home, unpaid, if you come into work and the computer system goes down. Since you can't work, they won't pay, and you just get to go home. And nannies want to be paid when they can be told 3 weeks ahead of time they will have the day off leaving them to be able to find babysitting jobs or take a mini-vacation... it's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Part-timers don't get paid time off.