Overnight pay

[Anonymous]

It looks like we might need my nanny to stay overnight for one night next month when my husband and I unexpectedly both have to travel out of town for work on the same night. Nanny will likely be on-shift from 8 a.m. Wednesday through 8 or 9 p.m. on Thursday all-told (given flight times). My nanny is willing, but none of us knows the appropriate way to compensate for this situation. What is the norm?

It appears that *legally* it is not required to pay her for up to 8 hours of sleeping time during this period (http://www.myhomepay.com/Answers/Overnight-Nanny). So, that is, I think we *could* pay her for 8 p.m. through 10 p.m. on Wednesday, then 6 a.m. through 9 p.m. the next day, plus any time during those overnight 8 hours that the kids are actually awake and she needs to help them. (And she will definitely have overtime hours that week, and would get those paid out.)

But we want to be fair, not just do the bare minimum. Do employers In this area also pay some amount for the inconvenience of her being at the house and effectively being on-call?

I expect this will be a very rare occurrence (first time in 2.5 years since she started with us).

[Anonymous]

I charge an overnight fee - over the years I usually charged $100 for younger kids and $50 for older kids in addition to all "awake" hours.

[Anonymous]

We pay our nanny her hourly wage with overtime. It seems right as she can’t leave, is away from her own home and family and is responsible if a kid gets sick at night.

[Anonymous]

I am paid my regular rate through 10pm and an overnight fee of $100. If I wake for the childe I charge per hour. I start the clock again when I start prepping for the children to wake.

[Anonymous]

I got $75 for each overnight and today would charge at least $100. I would absolutely not agree to an overnight without some kind of a differential-who wants to be away from home, in someone else's bed, working through the night? It's very hard to get a good night's sleep when you are on call and then she has to be on with the kids all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We pay our nanny her hourly wage with overtime. It seems right as she can’t leave, is away from her own home and family and is responsible if a kid gets sick at night.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

Just because legally you don't have to pay doesn't mean you shouldn't. If you told me I wasn't getting paid for 8hrs I'd tell you I'm not available.

[Anonymous]

My agreement with my nanny is the legal requirement (8 hours unpaid rest time) as long as the kid does not wake up between 10pm-6am which is about $150 extra to her normal 10 hour days. If the nanny has to get up during the night to care for the kid, it is regular rate for all overnight hours which is like $350 since all those hours are OT. We also comp food delivery or whatever she reasonably needs during that time. I think if we needed just one night we wouldn’t do anything extra, but if it was multiple nights in a row we’d give some kind of “bonus” for that week.
I know it’s rough being away from home but do think that the inconvenience is made up by the fact the nanny gets OT for a number of generally quiet hours. Maybe this is because I travel a lot for work with 6am or 10pm flights and sleep in different hotels quite a bit with no extra pay and find it not that bad if you develop a routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My agreement with my nanny is the legal requirement (8 hours unpaid rest time) as long as the kid does not wake up between 10pm-6am which is about $150 extra to her normal 10 hour days. If the nanny has to get up during the night to care for the kid, it is regular rate for all overnight hours which is like $350 since all those hours are OT. We also comp food delivery or whatever she reasonably needs during that time. I think if we needed just one night we wouldn’t do anything extra, but if it was multiple nights in a row we’d give some kind of “bonus” for that week.
I know it’s rough being away from home but do think that the inconvenience is made up by the fact the nanny gets OT for a number of generally quiet hours. Maybe this is because I travel a lot for work with 6am or 10pm flights and sleep in different hotels quite a bit with no extra pay and find it not that bad if you develop a routine.

When you travel for work do you have to stay in your hotel room? Are you responsible for anyone’s life in that hotel room besides your own?

I travel for work all the time as well and I am not confined to my hotel room nor responsible for getting anyone else out in case of a fire besides myself.

There is no comparison with what our nannies do overnight.

[Anonymous]

First of all, Care.com is not really a great source for ANYTHING at all.

It is a shady website overall.

Second, I find it unconciouble to have a Nanny sleep at my house w/out getting paid one dime.

People ->> This is outrageous!!!!!!!!

Thank goodness CA got it right.
I live in SoCal & would never work for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agreement with my nanny is the legal requirement (8 hours unpaid rest time) as long as the kid does not wake up between 10pm-6am which is about $150 extra to her normal 10 hour days. If the nanny has to get up during the night to care for the kid, it is regular rate for all overnight hours which is like $350 since all those hours are OT. We also comp food delivery or whatever she reasonably needs during that time. I think if we needed just one night we wouldn’t do anything extra, but if it was multiple nights in a row we’d give some kind of “bonus” for that week.
I know it’s rough being away from home but do think that the inconvenience is made up by the fact the nanny gets OT for a number of generally quiet hours. Maybe this is because I travel a lot for work with 6am or 10pm flights and sleep in different hotels quite a bit with no extra pay and find it not that bad if you develop a routine.

When you travel for work do you have to stay in your hotel room? Are you responsible for anyone’s life in that hotel room besides your own?

I travel for work all the time as well and I am not confined to my hotel room nor responsible for getting anyone else out in case of a fire besides myself.

There is no comparison with what our nannies do overnight.

No need to get snippy. I am simply sharing what I do. I understand other people will have different arrangements or priorities on compensation. It seems to work for my nanny and sure, maybe not every other nanny. Mine doesn’t happen to have kids or pets at home so the inconvenience to her may be less than for someone who does and needs to make a lot of other arrangements. But my nanny seems to think that’s fine in the overall context of the job, especially as we use overnights extremely rarely.

And no, usually when i travel for work I have to stay in a conference room with my team until midnight. And then get up at 7am to do it again. Whether I work 50 or 90 hours a week, my pay stays the same. Of course there is no comparison with what my nanny does. As I said, if she ends up having to do more work (whether the house burns down or the kid just has a nightmare and needs help getting back to bed) she will get paid more.

[Anonymous]

I’m a nanny and I get paid my hourly rate for all hours the child is awake and charge an overnight fee of $100 per night in addition to the hourly rate. If the child is awake from 7AM- 8PM I get paid for those hours. 9PM- 7AM Child is sleep so the clock is off. If the child wakes at 4AM and goes back to sleep at 5AM and doesn’t wake up until 9AM then I start the clock at 4 and it stops at 5 and then starts back up at 9.

Some families will provide petty cash for food or just buy extra snacks for the house. This normally is the case if they’re gone for the entire weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agreement with my nanny is the legal requirement (8 hours unpaid rest time) as long as the kid does not wake up between 10pm-6am which is about $150 extra to her normal 10 hour days. If the nanny has to get up during the night to care for the kid, it is regular rate for all overnight hours which is like $350 since all those hours are OT. We also comp food delivery or whatever she reasonably needs during that time. I think if we needed just one night we wouldn’t do anything extra, but if it was multiple nights in a row we’d give some kind of “bonus” for that week.
I know it’s rough being away from home but do think that the inconvenience is made up by the fact the nanny gets OT for a number of generally quiet hours. Maybe this is because I travel a lot for work with 6am or 10pm flights and sleep in different hotels quite a bit with no extra pay and find it not that bad if you develop a routine.

When you travel for work do you have to stay in your hotel room? Are you responsible for anyone’s life in that hotel room besides your own?

I travel for work all the time as well and I am not confined to my hotel room nor responsible for getting anyone else out in case of a fire besides myself.

There is no comparison with what our nannies do overnight.

No need to get snippy. I am simply sharing what I do. I understand other people will have different arrangements or priorities on compensation. It seems to work for my nanny and sure, maybe not every other nanny. Mine doesn’t happen to have kids or pets at home so the inconvenience to her may be less than for someone who does and needs to make a lot of other arrangements. But my nanny seems to think that’s fine in the overall context of the job, especially as we use overnights extremely rarely.

And no, usually when i travel for work I have to stay in a conference room with my team until midnight. And then get up at 7am to do it again. Whether I work 50 or 90 hours a week, my pay stays the same. Of course there is no comparison with what my nanny does. As I said, if she ends up having to do more work (whether the house burns down or the kid just has a nightmare and needs help getting back to bed) she will get paid more.

You are a dreadful employer. NP here and you are truly awful!

[Anonymous]

Our nanny gave us a travel/day rate for either when she stays with DD and we go out of town or travels with us. It is $400 a day and was negotiated by the agency. She is also entitled to a full day off - paid of course - when we return from a trip or all come home from a trip.

Ask your nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agreement with my nanny is the legal requirement (8 hours unpaid rest time) as long as the kid does not wake up between 10pm-6am which is about $150 extra to her normal 10 hour days. If the nanny has to get up during the night to care for the kid, it is regular rate for all overnight hours which is like $350 since all those hours are OT. We also comp food delivery or whatever she reasonably needs during that time. I think if we needed just one night we wouldn’t do anything extra, but if it was multiple nights in a row we’d give some kind of “bonus” for that week.
I know it’s rough being away from home but do think that the inconvenience is made up by the fact the nanny gets OT for a number of generally quiet hours. Maybe this is because I travel a lot for work with 6am or 10pm flights and sleep in different hotels quite a bit with no extra pay and find it not that bad if you develop a routine.

When you travel for work do you have to stay in your hotel room? Are you responsible for anyone’s life in that hotel room besides your own?

I travel for work all the time as well and I am not confined to my hotel room nor responsible for getting anyone else out in case of a fire besides myself.

There is no comparison with what our nannies do overnight.

No need to get snippy. I am simply sharing what I do. I understand other people will have different arrangements or priorities on compensation. It seems to work for my nanny and sure, maybe not every other nanny. Mine doesn’t happen to have kids or pets at home so the inconvenience to her may be less than for someone who does and needs to make a lot of other arrangements. But my nanny seems to think that’s fine in the overall context of the job, especially as we use overnights extremely rarely.

And no, usually when i travel for work I have to stay in a conference room with my team until midnight. And then get up at 7am to do it again. Whether I work 50 or 90 hours a week, my pay stays the same. Of course there is no comparison with what my nanny does. As I said, if she ends up having to do more work (whether the house burns down or the kid just has a nightmare and needs help getting back to bed) she will get paid more.

You are a dreadful employer. NP here and you are truly awful!

I’m not sure why you say this. I follow the legal requirement on pay and choose to go beyond the legal requirement in the areas that are more valuable to either our nanny or my family. Like full healthcare, 5-6 weeks of vacation every year, bonuses and gifts during travel (which I recognize is much more inconvenient than an in-town overnight) etc. If the overnights were a hardship on her such that she needed $500 extra to make it worth her while, I would probably find an alternative solution.