How much of a raise?

[Anonymous]

Our nanny has been with us nearly a year. We have a 4 yo and an 18 month old. No real changes to her duties that we anticipate. The older one will continue in preschool and the younger one now goes to more classes and is more active generally, but probably less work than as a baby in some ways. We think nanny is great. Just trying to figure out what kind of raise to give her.

Currently we pay her a guaranteed weekly salary of $1,057 before taxes. She works approximately 50 hours/week, but twice a week the grandparents pick the kids up early and spend time with them, and she gets to leave early. Salary remains consistent. Also when we go on vacations, take days off, etc. Another wrinkle: we do not provide healthcare because when she started, she was covered on her husband's plan. We just learned she has gotten divorced and so needs to buy a plan. Since this can't happen until open enrollment, we haven't done anything about it, but I'm keeping it in mind as a changed circumstance for her financially.

I'm was thinking raise her weekly pay to $1100, which would be about a 4% raise. Is that fair? Too much/too little? We will also think about helping with her health insurance, but again, can't do that until later in the year.

[Anonymous]

Why not start by having a conversation with her? Find out what her needs are, and if she wants to stay on.

[Anonymous]

A 4% raise along w/assisting her w/health care sounds very reasonable to me OP.

It is refreshing to see such generous employers such as yourself on here.

[Anonymous]

Divorce is a change in status event. She doesn't need to wait until open enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Hi- nanny here. I would say give her as much as you can- $50 more per week is great!!!
Thank you for being so considerate, very happy to see that there are good people out there! You're nanny will love you and do her 100% best when she knows she's so valued!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Divorce is a change in status event. She doesn't need to wait until open enrollment.

I agree with you. Unfortunately she didn't really tell us about the divorce until enough time had passed. She's a bit cryptic with her personal life sometimes (not that I blame her for keeping private things private, but the upshot is we didn't know until too late).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not start by having a conversation with her? Find out what her needs are, and if she wants to stay on.

We have spoken about whether she enjoys working for us and she says she loves it. I know she loves our kids. I've found that talking to her about money or the terms of her employment generally doesn't lead anywhere productive. I don't mean that in a bad way, more that she tends to go along with whatever we suggest. Here's what we can offer you, does that work? Yes, no problem. Slight change in schedule? No problem. Do XYZ to help us out or help our next door neighbor? No problem. Obviously this is GREAT from our perspective, but because of it I want to be sure I'm not taking advantage. For example, I am very hesitant to ask her to babysit and I don't think we ever have, because I don't want her to feel like she can't say no. Anyway, long explanation for why I'm turning to the internet to gauge the fairness of the raise.