I underestimated my inital pay rate - now what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LA nanny again- That being said $18/hr with a NICE family who treats you with respect is worth more than finding a new job that pays more with awful employers. It's really really really (really!!!) hard to find nice normal respectful families in this town and working for celebrities is the worst. If you're happy, stay and keep the $18/hr if they won't do a raise. It took me 10 years in this town to find a family who treated me with respect!!

+1000. I've found also this to be VERY true in LA, unfortunately. What else does your current compensation include (vacation/sick days, holidays, etc)? Are the parents considerate of your time and other obligations/health? What is your daily commute like? All these things will impact your job satisfaction.

My daily commute is three minutes - my NF lives just two blocks away. Being from LA, you know how fantastic that is!!!

But I don't get any benefits - no vacation, sick days, holidays, etc. Yes, they do treat me with respect and are very, very pleasant and considerate. I have never been late and they have only been a few minutes late - maybe twice or three times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in West LA for over 20 years and have employed nannies the whole time. I recently conducted a nanny search for a relative. I have a few thoughts about OP's situation. The whole area is expensive to live in, whether renting or buying. The facts that the family rents an apartment and did their search on care.com in the $15-$20 range would indicate to me that they are not "wealthy" by West LA standards. Since the baby is 9 months and you have been with them most of that time, they are young, first-time parents and you are likely the first employee they have had in their home. Just because they are "educated" doesn't mean they know everything about the nanny market or what they should do as employers. Their embarrassment when handing you the check could be because they still feel strange about paying someone to watch their child.

At the one year anniversary, you should ask for the raise you want. However, they may not be willing/able to pay it since an 11% increase is not standard and their cash flow may not be able to accommodate it. Most families do not need to have someone with a bachelor's degree in ECE (let alone a masters) but will be delighted if you have it in addition to the requisite nannying experience within their pay range. Any bachelors will do if you have nannying experience, excellent references, and a pleasant personality.

I suggest you try the agencies next time and hold out until you find a position that pays $20+/hr with a nice family that treats you well.

OP here and thank you for your thoughtful response. I am their first household employee and they are renting their apartment - just starting out. Oy... I don't know what to do now... Maybe I should just be happy with a $1 an hour raise and maybe ask for guaranteed hours and sick days/vacation days.

And next time I definitely will use one of the agencies in town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in West LA for over 20 years and have employed nannies the whole time. I recently conducted a nanny search for a relative. I have a few thoughts about OP's situation. The whole area is expensive to live in, whether renting or buying. The facts that the family rents an apartment and did their search on care.com in the $15-$20 range would indicate to me that they are not "wealthy" by West LA standards. Since the baby is 9 months and you have been with them most of that time, they are young, first-time parents and you are likely the first employee they have had in their home. Just because they are "educated" doesn't mean they know everything about the nanny market or what they should do as employers. Their embarrassment when handing you the check could be because they still feel strange about paying someone to watch their child.

At the one year anniversary, you should ask for the raise you want. However, they may not be willing/able to pay it since an 11% increase is not standard and their cash flow may not be able to accommodate it. Most families do not need to have someone with a bachelor's degree in ECE (let alone a masters) but will be delighted if you have it in addition to the requisite nannying experience within their pay range. Any bachelors will do if you have nannying experience, excellent references, and a pleasant personality.

I suggest you try the agencies next time and hold out until you find a position that pays $20+/hr with a nice family that treats you well.

OP here and thank you for your thoughtful response. I am their first household employee and they are renting their apartment - just starting out. Oy... I don't know what to do now... Maybe I should just be happy with a $1 an hour raise and maybe ask for guaranteed hours and sick days/vacation days.

And next time I definitely will use one of the agencies in town.

You'll definitely not get what you want if you don't ask. If you do ask, they may agree or counter at $1/hour. Don't negotiate with yourself. Ask for what you want.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same position, OP. I accepted a nanny position straight out of teaching without doing the proper research and found out within a few short weeks that I had completely undersold/undervalued myself. But I made this agreement and intend to live by it for the year. Then, I will ask my employers for a raise appropriate to my market value. If they say no, I will have another position lined up - no harm done - they had my bargain rates for an entire year. If they say, yes, I will obviously stay. But I feel I owe it to my employers to give them the option and not simply leave to take a higher paying job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same position, OP. I accepted a nanny position straight out of teaching without doing the proper research and found out within a few short weeks that I had completely undersold/undervalued myself. But I made this agreement and intend to live by it for the year. Then, I will ask my employers for a raise appropriate to my market value. If they say no, I will have another position lined up - no harm done - they had my bargain rates for an entire year. If they say, yes, I will obviously stay. But I feel I owe it to my employers to give them the option and not simply leave to take a higher paying job.

I agree with this approach completely. Its basically giving them rights to first refusal of your new rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same position, OP. I accepted a nanny position straight out of teaching without doing the proper research and found out within a few short weeks that I had completely undersold/undervalued myself. But I made this agreement and intend to live by it for the year. Then, I will ask my employers for a raise appropriate to my market value. If they say no, I will have another position lined up - no harm done - they had my bargain rates for an entire year. If they say, yes, I will obviously stay. But I feel I owe it to my employers to give them the option and not simply leave to take a higher paying job.

You should give them the option of paying you a fair wage now. They're taking advantage of you and they know it. The only exception I'd consider is if they're poor and truly struggling. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I gave them the "advantage" by not researching properly before I accepted their nanny position - I feel strongly that I owe it to my employers to live up to my initial agreement for one year. That is just me and how I choose to run my business - other nannies, in different situations, could well do what you described and be completely within their rights.

"When you know better, you do better".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same position, OP. I accepted a nanny position straight out of teaching without doing the proper research and found out within a few short weeks that I had completely undersold/undervalued myself. But I made this agreement and intend to live by it for the year. Then, I will ask my employers for a raise appropriate to my market value. If they say no, I will have another position lined up - no harm done - they had my bargain rates for an entire year. If they say, yes, I will obviously stay. But I feel I owe it to my employers to give them the option and not simply leave to take a higher paying job.

You should give them the option of paying you a fair wage now. They're taking advantage of you and they know it. The only exception I'd consider is if they're poor and truly struggling. Good luck.

They are not taking advantage of her. Good grief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same position, OP. I accepted a nanny position straight out of teaching without doing the proper research and found out within a few short weeks that I had completely undersold/undervalued myself. But I made this agreement and intend to live by it for the year. Then, I will ask my employers for a raise appropriate to my market value. If they say no, I will have another position lined up - no harm done - they had my bargain rates for an entire year. If they say, yes, I will obviously stay. But I feel I owe it to my employers to give them the option and not simply leave to take a higher paying job.

You should give them the option of paying you a fair wage now. They're taking advantage of you and they know it. The only exception I'd consider is if they're poor and truly struggling. Good luck.

They are not taking advantage of her. Good grief.

+1. If you hire someone to do a job (any job) and they say "my rate is x", no one in their right mind would say "you are undervaluing yourself so I'm going to pay you 11% more." I don't care how nice and fair someone is, no one is THAT nice. If it was reversed and NF said "we are going to pay you $35/hr" would you ever tell the nanny to say "that's WAY above what I'm worth so I'm only going to take $20/hr."

These people are paying OP what she asked. It's totally reasonable for OP to ask for the rate she feels she deserves now (and I don't buy the crap about what did OP do this year to deserve the increase, she deserves the increase because it's market rate) but don't make it about the parents taking advantage, that's crap too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LA nanny again- That being said $18/hr with a NICE family who treats you with respect is worth more than finding a new job that pays more with awful employers. It's really really really (really!!!) hard to find nice normal respectful families in this town and working for celebrities is the worst. If you're happy, stay and keep the $18/hr if they won't do a raise. It took me 10 years in this town to find a family who treated me with respect!!

+1000. I've found also this to be VERY true in LA, unfortunately. What else does your current compensation include (vacation/sick days, holidays, etc)? Are the parents considerate of your time and other obligations/health? What is your daily commute like? All these things will impact your job satisfaction.

My daily commute is three minutes - my NF lives just two blocks away. Being from LA, you know how fantastic that is!!!

But I don't get any benefits - no vacation, sick days, holidays, etc. Yes, they do treat me with respect and are very, very pleasant and considerate. I have never been late and they have only been a few minutes late - maybe twice or three times.

Wow! Three minutes is not only fantastic, it's virtually UNHEARD of! Good for you, OP!

[Anonymous]

Op, you are in the wrong and you need to wait until your 1yr anniversary to ask for a raise. It's not the parents fault you're dumb and didn't do your research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, you are in the wrong and you need to wait until your 1yr anniversary to ask for a raise. It's not the parents fault you're dumb and didn't do your research.

If you're going to call someone names, you'd do best to actually read what they said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, you are in the wrong and you need to wait until your 1yr anniversary to ask for a raise. It's not the parents fault you're dumb and didn't do your research.

OP here, and I stated very clearly that I was waiting until my year anniversary. Is reading comprehension difficult for you? I'm sure you could find a good tutor to help you comprehend simple words and phrases. Best of luck to you.