Contract questions - afterschool sitter with "retainer"

[Anonymous]

We are looking to hire a sitter 30 hours a week after preschool. We understand that the best candidates want full-time, and and we are willing to pay a full-time salary for working 30 hours/week. Question is how to structure her contract. We would like to pay an hourly rate for the hours she will be working and some sort of retainer to supplement her income, so that we do not have to play an inflated rate for the times when we will ask her to work full-time (days of school, winter break, etc. - especially since those are the weeks we would be most likely to be paying time and a half for overtime). Does anyone have any tips/experience on how to handle this? My understanding is that nannies cannot legally be "exempt" and receive a flat weekly salary. Thank you very much!

[Anonymous]

You would do best to give her guaranteed hours. Say you guarantee 40 hours a week and pay her whether you use her for all forty hours or not so it is basically a salary. Anything above those forty hours is considered an addition to the 40 hours guaranteed/salary.

I have a similar situation with a part-time nanny for 15 hours a week. I have guaranteed 15 hours a week at $20 an hour. Our nanny get $300 a week regardless of whether we need her for fifteen hours a week. And more per hour at the same rate if we happen to need her for more. But $300 is absolute and guaranteed. It is the only way to keep a great nanny/babysitter.

[Anonymous]

OP here: that now seems so obvious, and yet so brilliant. She can start earlier two days, and then I can avoid preschool before-care drop-off on those days. And already have her there if one of the kids is sick or something. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I only take positions with salary. We word the contract in such a way that the salary is for x number of hours at y rate, paid every week, any unused hours are banked for holiday weeks/crazy traveling weeks, and any banked hours left at the end of a year are dropped and we start fresh. It gives me a salary that doesn't change so that I can make concrete plans for it, and the family has the flexibility to know that I will cover whatever is needed. The only thing that has created a problem is when the family didn't have enough banked hours, and the contract stipulates that I will be paid time and a half for those hours at the hourly rate, and the family wanted to have another bank so that they could use the hours and give me random hours off later. The issue I had with it was that they didn't want to tell me when they would be off, so that I could plan. It's one thing if mom gets home early and says 1.5 hours is going in the bank, it's another if the family wants 20+ extra hours for a week, but wants to give 15 and 30 minutes here and there over several months to make up for the insane week.

[Anonymous]

Why does the nanny usually get screwed?

[Anonymous]

Why, why, why put yourself through the hassel of banking hours? I have a salary for a set number of hours a week and if the parents get home early, no hours get "banked" for them to use later. I just get to leave early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only take positions with salary. We word the contract in such a way that the salary is for x number of hours at y rate, paid every week, any unused hours are banked for holiday weeks/crazy traveling weeks, and any banked hours left at the end of a year are dropped and we start fresh. It gives me a salary that doesn't change so that I can make concrete plans for it, and the family has the flexibility to know that I will cover whatever is needed. The only thing that has created a problem is when the family didn't have enough banked hours, and the contract stipulates that I will be paid time and a half for those hours at the hourly rate, and the family wanted to have another bank so that they could use the hours and give me random hours off later. The issue I had with it was that they didn't want to tell me when they would be off, so that I could plan. It's one thing if mom gets home early and says 1.5 hours is going in the bank, it's another if the family wants 20+ extra hours for a week, but wants to give 15 and 30 minutes here and there over several months to make up for the insane week.

You are being shortchanged, PP. "Guaranteed hours" does guarantee a salary every week whether they use you for those hours or not. And anything over your guaranteed hours is paid at your usual rate of overtime if it puts you over 40 hours for that particular week. You would be earning much more money than doing it your way. And no "banking hours" - that is just insane.

Btw, salary and banking hours are both illegal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I only take positions with salary. We word the contract in such a way that the salary is for x number of hours at y rate, paid every week, any unused hours are banked for holiday weeks/crazy traveling weeks, and any banked hours left at the end of a year are dropped and we start fresh. It gives me a salary that doesn't change so that I can make concrete plans for it, and the family has the flexibility to know that I will cover whatever is needed. The only thing that has created a problem is when the family didn't have enough banked hours, and the contract stipulates that I will be paid time and a half for those hours at the hourly rate, and the family wanted to have another bank so that they could use the hours and give me random hours off later. The issue I had with it was that they didn't want to tell me when they would be off, so that I could plan. It's one thing if mom gets home early and says 1.5 hours is going in the bank, it's another if the family wants 20+ extra hours for a week, but wants to give 15 and 30 minutes here and there over several months to make up for the insane week.

You are being shortchanged, PP. "Guaranteed hours" does guarantee a salary every week whether they use you for those hours or not. And anything over your guaranteed hours is paid at your usual rate of overtime if it puts you over 40 hours for that particular week. You would be earning much more money than doing it your way. And no "banking hours" - that is just insane.

Btw, salary and banking hours are both illegal.

Nannies are paid hourly, this family AND nanny have come to an agreement to pay $X amount per hour and the family prepays certain hours each week to use in the future. Nothing illegal about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I only take positions with salary. We word the contract in such a way that the salary is for x number of hours at y rate, paid every week, any unused hours are banked for holiday weeks/crazy traveling weeks, and any banked hours left at the end of a year are dropped and we start fresh. It gives me a salary that doesn't change so that I can make concrete plans for it, and the family has the flexibility to know that I will cover whatever is needed. The only thing that has created a problem is when the family didn't have enough banked hours, and the contract stipulates that I will be paid time and a half for those hours at the hourly rate, and the family wanted to have another bank so that they could use the hours and give me random hours off later. The issue I had with it was that they didn't want to tell me when they would be off, so that I could plan. It's one thing if mom gets home early and says 1.5 hours is going in the bank, it's another if the family wants 20+ extra hours for a week, but wants to give 15 and 30 minutes here and there over several months to make up for the insane week.

You are being shortchanged, PP. "Guaranteed hours" does guarantee a salary every week whether they use you for those hours or not. And anything over your guaranteed hours is paid at your usual rate of overtime if it puts you over 40 hours for that particular week. You would be earning much more money than doing it your way. And no "banking hours" - that is just insane.

Btw, salary and banking hours are both illegal.

Nannies are paid hourly, this family AND nanny have come to an agreement to pay $X amount per hour and the family prepays certain hours each week to use in the future. Nothing illegal about that.

Precisely. And as live-in nannies only get overtime in certain states, I've actually come out ahead. Besides, I get paid for hours I'm still asleep