How to figure OT for a share

[Anonymous]

We are starting a new share and I'm trying to figure out how to calculate OT. For example, if the regular share hour rate is 24 per hour, how should OT be calculated for one child? One family needs care 8-4 and the other family needs care 8-5 so that last hour the nanny only has one kid. Is the rate 12 x 1.5=18 or 24 x 1.5=36 or should the OT family pay 24 for one child?

TIA

[Anonymous]

The family needing overtime should pay $18 for the last hour.

[Anonymous]

The family who needs overtime will pay their portion of OT. So $18 for OT (1 family) and $36 for OT (2 families).

[Anonymous]

Double nanny will be okay with getting stiffed for the last hour!!

[Anonymous]

*doubt

[Anonymous]

So instead of getting actual OT nanny gets half the rate? No it doesn’t work like that and that’s illegal. Second family will actually have to suck it up and pay a real rate and nanny gets $36/hr for that last hour. Family needing OT pays the difference. Why should the nanny lose out??? You people are only paying $12/hr for childcare, give me a break!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So instead of getting actual OT nanny gets half the rate? No it doesn’t work like that and that’s illegal. Second family will actually have to suck it up and pay a real rate and nanny gets $36/hr for that last hour. Family needing OT pays the difference. Why should the nanny lose out??? You people are only paying $12/hr for childcare, give me a break!

Depends on how the contract is structured. If the rate is $24/hr regardless of how many children are present, you are right. If the contract spells out a 1 child and 2 child rate, then OT would be based on those base rates. If the children share all other hours, OP probably did not write in a 1-child rate, but they need to negotiate one with their nanny for just these kinds of circumstances.

The 1-child rate is almost never half the full share rate, however. It should probably be more like $18-$20/hr, with OT then calculated on that base rate (so $27-$30/hr).

[Anonymous]

OP here. I have the nanny right now on my own at 18. The share family is joining after Thanksgiving. Thanks for all the insight.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you need to write in a one-child and two-child rate. But in a share situation, the two families are legally joint employers, so that means the OT time starts at the 41st hour (or 9th hour if you're in a state with daily OT) regardless of which kid was there when.

We had a similar situation in our share and split the OT costs, but you may prefer to have the family with 40 hours pay the straight rate and the family with the extra five hours pay 1.5x the single child rate for those hours.

A typical scenario, if your share rate is $24/hour and your single-child rate is $18/hour, has family A paying $480 for the week and family B paying $615 for the week for the extra five hours at single-child OT rates. But family A may need to bend a bit on that to make the share work for everyone. Either way the nanny's pay for the week needs to be $1095 (in this scenario).

[Anonymous]

OP, are you the one who needs the extra hours or is it the new family? If it's your family, I'd probably just pay that yourself since it will still be considerably less per week than you'd paid pre-share, and I think some families new to shares will balk at having to subsidize the extra hours.

[Anonymous]

There's actually a real, legal answer to this. At least, there is as to what to pay the nanny - how to divide the overtime costs between the families is up to you.

If you don't have an explicit one child rate, you have to pay overtime on the full two child rate.

If you have an explicit one child rate, you have to pay overtime on the blended average. The blended average is the average hourly rate before overtime. So, for example, if you use 40 hours at a 2 child rate of $20/hr and 10 hours at a 1 child rate of $10/hr (rates picked for easy math) - you paid a basel of $900 for a total of 50 hours. That is a blended average rate of $18/hr. The nanny is owed 10 hours of overtime on this rate, or, and additional $90.


Note that the law doesn't care which hours are overage or not. If you go over 40 hours with one kid, your OT rate will actually be much close to the two child rate.

[Anonymous]

PP once again. This is also a great example of how joint employment law benefits the nanny. The nanny is considered a joint employee of the two parents at her two child rate. Without an explicit agreement as to a one child rate, you can't just decide to cut her pay in half if she is only watching one child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's actually a real, legal answer to this. At least, there is as to what to pay the nanny - how to divide the overtime costs between the families is up to you.

If you don't have an explicit one child rate, you have to pay overtime on the full two child rate.

If you have an explicit one child rate, you have to pay overtime on the blended average. The blended average is the average hourly rate before overtime. So, for example, if you use 40 hours at a 2 child rate of $20/hr and 10 hours at a 1 child rate of $10/hr (rates picked for easy math) - you paid a basel of $900 for a total of 50 hours. That is a blended average rate of $18/hr. The nanny is owed 10 hours of overtime on this rate, or, and additional $90.


Note that the law doesn't care which hours are overage or not. If you go over 40 hours with one kid, your OT rate will actually be much close to the two child rate.

Nope, blended rates are illegal.

If you have 1 and 2 child rates, you use whichever is applicable for OT. If not, you pay OT on the normal rate.

So, given that you said $18 for 1 child, $24 for 2 ($12 per family), this is how it works for Family A 40 hours, Family B same 40 hours + overtime:

Family A: rate*hours=pay $12*40=$480
Family B: share rate*share hours+OT premium*single rate*single hours=pay $12*40+1.5*$18*10=$480+15*$18=$480+$270=$750
Nanny: 2 child rate*share hours+OT premium*single rate*single hours=pay $24*40+1.5*$18*10=$960+$270=$1,230

Yes, Family B is paying just over half again for just those last ten hours. However, that's what happens when there's a 1 child rate; it's much better to pay $270 for those hours than $360! This is also why most shares have identical hours, that way the families feel like they're not paying as much for what they need.