What paid holidays to offer nanny?

[Anonymous]

Hi, my DH and I are new to the process of hiring a nanny.
What paid holidays are typically offered to nannies?
How do you work out vacations?
I’m reading about the “guaranteed” # of hours on some posts. How does that work?

Sorry for these basic questions, but I wanted to see what the market rates are in the DC area.

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

We give July 4, Memorial Day , Labor Day , thanksgiving day , Xmas day , New Year’s Day
We give two weeks paid vacation where we pick one week and the nanny picks the other
Guaranteed hours meaning , if you go on spontaneous trips or decide to do something as a family one week , you don’t cut her hours
You always guarantee 40 hours minimum . This is usually a must for most nannies

[Anonymous]

Guaranteed hours are the hours you agree upon: like 8 to 4 Monday thru Friday. The nanny agrees to be available to work those hours and you pay for those hours whether you need her or not. They are not exchangeable. So if you want to take your baby to the doctor or park alone during those hours, you still have to pay the nanny. If you decide to go away for a day of that schedule, you still pay the nanny. Those hours are set in stone.

We give our nanny all legal holidays paid. And two weeks paid vacation to start: one week of her choosing and one week of our choosing. After the first year, we give three weeks vacation, then top at four in her third year.

We also pay for sick days but our nanny of two years has never been sick!

[Anonymous]

Guaranteed pay means that’s she’s reserving those hours for you and you’re agreeing to pay them 52 weeks per year. If you go one 4 vacations, but she agreed to 2 in her contract, you COULD ask her to purge baby clothes and toys during part of one week and you COULD ask her to batch cook and freeze baby food the other week. She is technically available to work those weeks (only in the same child-related tasks, no taking care of pets or grocery shopping to refill your refrigerator). Most families just give the nanny the week off if they’re gone extra time. Most families easily guarantee the same number of hours every week; other families have variable schedules and the guaranteed hours are the average.

Most families give the three holidays off (paid): Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. The only families who don’t are either working (ER doctors!) or both nanny and family don’t celebrate Christmas. I’d guess that over three quarters of families give Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day off paid. Feds are usually the only ones who give all federal holidays off. It varies based on family need and how much the nanny is willing to negotiate on other things. Lots of holidays can sometimes be a good benefit if a family can’t quite afford a decent pay rate.

Most nannies get 2 weeks of vacation their first year, 1 week their choice, 1 week family choice. Most families require at least one notice before the nanny takes her week; some families require 3 months or more. Most nannies insist on at least a month of notice before the family choice week (ask they have a chance to make plans that won’t cost a month’s pay), or the family’s spontaneous vacation just is guaranteed hours for the nanny and the family will choose a different week later in the year for the nanny. Some nannies and families agree to pay out or roll over unused vacation, other contracts are written such that it will be used.

You didn’t address PTO or sick leave. Most nannies get 2-4 sick days and 1-3 PTO. Some families allow PTO to be taken in half days (morning doctor appointment, nanny comes in by halfway through the day), but others only do full days. Many live-in nannies have unlimited sick days, because it’s incredibly easy to know when the nanny is too sick to work, while it’s also typically easy for the nanny to take an easy day when she’s not too sick. Families of live-in nannies also realize that the nanny and kids are constantly sharing germs back and forth.

A nanny who can walk to your house will sometimes agree to a slightly lower hourly rate due to ease of commute. A nanny who rings her child will sometimes agree to a lower rate, but is almost always more flexible about just about everything (and very loyal). A nanny who feels nickel-and-dimed will look for another position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, my DH and I are new to the process of hiring a nanny.
What paid holidays are typically offered to nannies?
How do you work out vacations?
I’m reading about the “guaranteed” # of hours on some posts. How does that work?

Sorry for these basic questions, but I wanted to see what the market rates are in the DC area.

Thanks in advance!

We give all federal holidays. Then we give two "floating" holidays - they get one every six months and have to give two weeks notice to use one of those.
We work out vacations by having the nanny earn vacation time per each pay period. This lets us avoid the situation so many people here post about where their nanny takes a two-week vacation in February and then wants to take a month off in August and a week off around Thanksgiving. They wouldn't be able to take two weeks off in February because they wouldn't have earned two weeks by that time. We ask for a month's notice prior to any vacation longer than two days in a row.
Guaranteed pay means we pay for that minimum number of hours even if we don't use that many that week.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, DCUM! This is incredibly helpful to us as newbies!
Love you guys (and gals)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, my DH and I are new to the process of hiring a nanny.
What paid holidays are typically offered to nannies?
How do you work out vacations?
I’m reading about the “guaranteed” # of hours on some posts. How does that work?

Sorry for these basic questions, but I wanted to see what the market rates are in the DC area.

Thanks in advance!

We pay a guarantee 40hrs a week 52 weeks a year. So no matter what each week our nanny grosses $800. We do this because we do take plenty of days off and like spending our free time with our children. No nanny would agree to work for us with our schedule if we did not pay for the downtime.

We offer off all federal holidays, the week of Thanksgiving, spring break (the week before easter), the week between Christmas and New Years, and 4 weeks in the summer and for that time try best to coordinate it.