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Anonymous wrote:2 kids, ages 6 and 3; about 36 hours a week (4 days a week, 1 set day off weekly), from 7am-4pm. Older child is in school from 8:45-3:45, younger child is in preschool 2 mornings a week, so most of the time it's just one child with 5-6 hours a week of no kids unless one is sick. Offering guaranteed hours, 2 weeks vacation, 1 week PTO/sick leave. Minimal housekeeping--kid laundry, picking up some toys, emptying the dishwasher.
We have been paying $18 an hour for this. Does this seem fair?
OP, this sounds like a great job for a nanny who doesn't want the stress of a 55 hour workweek, or someone who wants/needs a weekday off to attend to personal business! $648/week is absolutely fine for this position, IMO.
The only issue I can foresee is that your candidate choice might be slightly limited because many nannies prefer to work longer hours for larger paychecks. And as a matter of course, explicit definitions of household responsibilities are essential in any nanny position,
And pay no attention to the poster who claims any nanny making less than $30/hour is just a warm body/"real basic mostly OK nanny"/unqualified nanny. You don't need a nanny to work outrageous hours, aka 24/7, and that means you don't have to pay $30+/hour to keep nannies from quitting frequently due to burnout from over work.
Good luck with your search!
You need to figure out exactly what it is that you want before you approach the other family. And you MUST approach the other family first, since they are paying their nanny to focus on their child.
Do you want Nanny X to act as a taxi service for your nanny and child?
Do you want Nanny X to take on the care of your child occasionally while at a class?
Or are you actually trying to figure out a way to let your non-driving nanny go and have Nanny X add your child to her work day?
Whatever your motivation, I can tell you the employers I have had would be completely uninterested in your proposal, and I, as a nanny, would not want the responsibility or liability.
Do you want Nanny X to act as a taxi service for your nanny and child?
Do you want Nanny X to take on the care of your child occasionally while at a class?
Or are you actually trying to figure out a way to let your non-driving nanny go and have Nanny X add your child to her work day?
Whatever your motivation, I can tell you the employers I have had would be completely uninterested in your proposal, and I, as a nanny, would not want the responsibility or liability.
You can use one of the Nanny Tax companies tax calculators for free, and print out the results to show her. If she filled out her W4 correctly, the withholding info will be there for you to use.
SS/Medicare is 7.65% of her gross pay.
SS/Medicare is 7.65% of her gross pay.
Anonymous wrote:We recently hired a nanny on trial for our 10 month old baby. The deal is after a few weeks, if we like her, we will go into a 1-year contract. We previously paid our nannies $15/hr, some were terrible and some were good except something went wrong (calling in frequently, dropping the baby). So this time, we offered $18/hr, 40 hours a week. We went over in detail what she needed to do during the day as far as light housekeeping. All of them pertained to the baby and we made that clear. Frankly she's been coming in every morning and doing everything. Our bed, scrubbing the bath tub and toilet, picking up after mine and my husbands mess. We never asked her to do these things but went along with it and took on anything we could get to if she hadn't before us. I don't work but have my own agenda. I don't want to clean on her schedule when I have other things going on. I'll clean my mess at my own leisure (and we're not very messy).
Anyways, she asked for a raise on her second week of working with us. She now wants $20.50/hr for cleaning up after us. This is for one baby in the Dupont Circle area. We live in a one bedroom apartment and there isn't really that much to clean. Another concern I have is that she is not focusing on the baby enough and wants to do other things (like clean), so does that make her a good candidate as his nanny? She has about 10 yrs experience and no college education. I feel like we are being taken advantage of since we are fortunate young adults. Does anyone else think so?
Also, how does the lunch hour work? She works 8 hours straight (10am-6pm) and eats when she pleases. I'd like to start working again soon and that will require a 9.5 hour work day for her. If someone has a nanny contract sample they could send me I would greatly appreciate it.
I hate the people who always call "troll", but your post makes me wonder if this is real. You've had that many nannies in less than 10 months? Then something is off with your screening and hiring practices, or the wages you offered in the past were low for your area.
As for this nanny, you sit down with her and explain that you want her to focus on baby only. You tell her you appreciate her housekeeping efforts, but you want her to stick to the agreed chores at this time since you want her to do XYZ with baby. You then remind her of the wages she agreed to when taking the job, and go back over her gross weekly pay ($720), her withholdings, and so on. THEN, you remind her that at X time you will be returning to work, and her hours will increase to 47.5 per week, which raises her weekly gross to $922.50.
As far as lunch hours go, nannies don't get one unless your state or local government has passed a law forcing employers to offer unpaid break time through the day. She can eat when she wants, eat while baby eats, what have you, but unless you plan to come home from work and let her leave to get lunch daily, a "lunch break" is not a concern.
If she continues to clean, and lobby for a raise, you'll need to start looking again and trying to find a nanny who prefers to teach kids, not scrub toilets.
Anonymous wrote:OP, is the nanny who left the only nanny your older child has known? If so, have you managed the transition as gently and firmly as possible?
Anecdote: I left a family after 4 years to return to school. The parents handled things poorly, not telling the 6 yo and 3 yo until my last week that I was leaving. The kids didn't get to mourn, and didn't get the support they needed from their parents to work through their feelings. [bold] 6 years down the road, the then 12 yo was still asking me to come back to take care of them, and telling her now SAHM to go back to work because "Nanny takes better care of me than you do!"[/bold]
All that to say that this has to be managed in a way that allows your children to mourn their loss and still encourages them to welcome someone new into their lives. If you have had a nanny for a long time, there is an attachment and your kids need to have you help them manage the loss they are experiencing.
Once you start dealing with their loss, you can also start looking for a nanny who has come into a family and managed the transition from "old nanny" to "new nanny" successfully.
Be gentle with your kids as they mourn and be firm with them about a new nanny coming into their lives. They can learn to love a new nanny and manage the fact that they feel disloyal to the old nanny with your help.
Good luck!
I find this very hard to believe. Seriously? You want us to believe that a 12 yr old has been begging for your return for six years because he thinks you are a better caretaker than his mother?
BS.
You're a fine nanny, deb, and you have a lot to offer other nannies here.
But don't overplay your hand.
You are free to believe me or not. The facts are as I described them. I do not know what went on within that family the 358 or so days each year I was NOT around after leaving, but what I witnessed was a child not getting supportive closure from her parents after I left and trying to get me to return to take care of her. I'm not stupid enough to start describing everything that happened in great detail, so do with my input what you will.
OP, is the nanny who left the only nanny your older child has known? If so, have you managed the transition as gently and firmly as possible?
Anecdote: I left a family after 4 years to return to school. The parents handled things poorly, not telling the 6 yo and 3 yo until my last week that I was leaving. The kids didn't get to mourn, and didn't get the support they needed from their parents to work through their feelings. 6 years down the road, the then 12 yo was still asking me to come back to take care of them, and telling her now SAHM to go back to work because "Nanny takes better care of me than you do!"
All that to say that this has to be managed in a way that allows your children to mourn their loss and still encourages them to welcome someone new into their lives. If you have had a nanny for a long time, there is an attachment and your kids need to have you help them manage the loss they are experiencing.
Once you start dealing with their loss, you can also start looking for a nanny who has come into a family and managed the transition from "old nanny" to "new nanny" successfully.
Be gentle with your kids as they mourn and be firm with them about a new nanny coming into their lives. They can learn to love a new nanny and manage the fact that they feel disloyal to the old nanny with your help.
Good luck!
Anecdote: I left a family after 4 years to return to school. The parents handled things poorly, not telling the 6 yo and 3 yo until my last week that I was leaving. The kids didn't get to mourn, and didn't get the support they needed from their parents to work through their feelings. 6 years down the road, the then 12 yo was still asking me to come back to take care of them, and telling her now SAHM to go back to work because "Nanny takes better care of me than you do!"
All that to say that this has to be managed in a way that allows your children to mourn their loss and still encourages them to welcome someone new into their lives. If you have had a nanny for a long time, there is an attachment and your kids need to have you help them manage the loss they are experiencing.
Once you start dealing with their loss, you can also start looking for a nanny who has come into a family and managed the transition from "old nanny" to "new nanny" successfully.
Be gentle with your kids as they mourn and be firm with them about a new nanny coming into their lives. They can learn to love a new nanny and manage the fact that they feel disloyal to the old nanny with your help.
Good luck!
Anonymous wrote:nannydebsays wrote:OP, despite a PP's response, unless all 3 of your kids are under 3, or you have triplets, or some other challenging situation, $1000/week net (aka about $1300/week gross) is likely on the high side.
And you never talk net wages with anyone. Gross pay minus taxes is the only way to professionally negotiate.
At $18/hour plus OT at $27/hour, you'd be paying $990/week gross.
For live out or live in?
Honestly, I don't know the cost difference. It might be $2 less per hour, and in many places a LI nanny is not paid OT for hours above 40/week, just straight hourly pay. The best way to determine a good wage is to advertise your job at $x/hour and see what sort of candidates you get - if the quality of candidates is not what you want, you may have to raise the hourly rate a bit.
OP, despite a PP's response, unless all 3 of your kids are under 3, or you have triplets, or some other challenging situation, $1000/week net (aka about $1300/week gross) is likely on the high side.
And you never talk net wages with anyone. Gross pay minus taxes is the only way to professionally negotiate.
At $18/hour plus OT at $27/hour, you'd be paying $990/week gross.
And you never talk net wages with anyone. Gross pay minus taxes is the only way to professionally negotiate.
At $18/hour plus OT at $27/hour, you'd be paying $990/week gross.
With your budget, even if you expanded your hours to 6am - 3pm, you could definitely get a good quality nanny. I would NOT try to do 3 different rates. Instead, choose a rate that feels fair to you and nanny for the workload, remembering that school holidays/summer will change the hours kids are home.
45 hours/week at $18/hour plus OT would be $855/week.
45 hours/week at $18/hour plus OT would be $855/week.
So to the PP's saying I am incorrect:
I can see your point about OT just for hours worked, but would you agree that OP owes nanny money for every hour worked AND her 8 hours of vacation pay? I think OP is trying to avoid paying for every hour worked *and* for vacation hours.
And IMO, the relationship between OP and her nanny is likely already off to a less than stellar start due to the fact that OP hired nanny to work a 40 hour week, and the first weeks of employment have been 50 hour work weeks.
I think that OP needs to sit down with nanny and the share parents and completely rework their contract. I also think that OP needs to take the OT hit on this, and make sure the contract is MUCH clearer to avoid issues in the future.
I don't take a share position unless 1 of 2 possibilities exists for PTO:
1) Families coordinate their vacations (10 days of PTO) so I actually get 2 full weeks off.
2) I choose all 10 days of vacation PTO
To do otherwise means nanny winds up never being fully off work, since one or both families always need her services.
I can see your point about OT just for hours worked, but would you agree that OP owes nanny money for every hour worked AND her 8 hours of vacation pay? I think OP is trying to avoid paying for every hour worked *and* for vacation hours.
And IMO, the relationship between OP and her nanny is likely already off to a less than stellar start due to the fact that OP hired nanny to work a 40 hour week, and the first weeks of employment have been 50 hour work weeks.
I think that OP needs to sit down with nanny and the share parents and completely rework their contract. I also think that OP needs to take the OT hit on this, and make sure the contract is MUCH clearer to avoid issues in the future.
I don't take a share position unless 1 of 2 possibilities exists for PTO:
1) Families coordinate their vacations (10 days of PTO) so I actually get 2 full weeks off.
2) I choose all 10 days of vacation PTO
To do otherwise means nanny winds up never being fully off work, since one or both families always need her services.
And if you choose not to do the housekeeping, and they choose not to have you work those 2.5 hours twice a week, make sure they know you will not be available for sick days or school holidays those 5 hours a week.
If they want you to be available to work, they need to pay you. if they want you to clean their house, they need to ASK you, and accept your answer.
I would consider coming up with other things you could do, like weekly groceries, errands, etc. if you will not clean.
If they want you to be available to work, they need to pay you. if they want you to clean their house, they need to ASK you, and accept your answer.
I would consider coming up with other things you could do, like weekly groceries, errands, etc. if you will not clean.
She wants a good reference. Enjoy her better job performance, and before she leaves tell her you appreciate that she did finally step up after giving you notice, but that you would suggest she start her next job off on a good note by actually DOING her job.
If you choose to write her a reference letter, be matter of fact and straight forward about the job performance issues, but don't come off as bitter - that will make people less likely to believe you. Same goes for phone references.
If you choose to write her a reference letter, be matter of fact and straight forward about the job performance issues, but don't come off as bitter - that will make people less likely to believe you. Same goes for phone references.
Anonymous wrote:We really didn't think that our contract with her worked that way -- if we give her a guaranteed weekly minimum AND we pay her a daily rate for 10 vacation days, 10 holidays, and 5 sick days, we are talking about an additional $4,400/year. I thought that was the whole point of having a minimum. Anyways, thanks for your help - all of this is so confusing!
To clarify: If you don't have her work OT when she is getting "vacation", you won't need to worry about paying her anything additional. OT costs more money. Period.
Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all the responses. To clarify: her minimum weekly amount of $880 is based on a 40 hour work week, with 20 of those hours at a 2-child rate. She has only worked for us for 3 weeks, and in those 3 weeks it turns out we are using her more like 50 hours per week.
Last week (the week of September 15th) she worked a total of 36.5 hours (10 hours with 1 baby, 18 hours with the other baby solo, and 8.5 hours of share with both babies). When you multiply those hours by the applicable rate per hour ($19 for solo hours and $25 for share hours), the total comes out to $745 for the week. She had 1 vacation day on that week. We paid her the minimum of $880. But it sounds like the concensus on this board is that we should be paying her $745 + $176 (1/5 of the weekly minimum).
We really didn't think that our contract with her worked that way -- if we give her a guaranteed weekly minimum AND we pay her a daily rate for 10 vacation days, 10 holidays, and 5 sick days, we are talking about an additional $4,400/year. I thought that was the whole point of having a minimum. Anyways, thanks for your help - all of this is so confusing!
You only owe her extra for hours worked above and beyond 40 per week. BUT when you toss vacation pay in there, it does make it confusing. In the simplest possible terms, you MUST pay her for hours worked outside of her normal schedule, including work done on days she had "vacation", because she's NOT on vacation. The fact that this is a nanny share does make it more complex. If she worked extra for the other family, THEY owe her OT. If she worked extra for you, YOU owe her OT.
In my eyes (and my work agreement), the guaranteed weekly minimum is (example!) $800 for work between 9 am and 5 pm. Work outside of those hours is paid above and beyond my guaranteed hours at my OT rate of $30/hour.
Your nanny had every right to expect to work ONLY 32 hours the week of 9/15, and to be paid for 40 hours. However, she worked 4.5 hours of what I would consider OT. So she needs to be paid her minimum PLUS 4.5 hours of OT pay. If her OT was with both babies, she is due $37.50 x 4.5 IN ADDITION to her $880 weekly minimum. If her OT was with only one baby, she is due $28.50 x 4.5 plus her standard minimum pay of $880.
So, yes, you (and your share partner?) owe her either $128.25, $168.75, or some other amount I can't calculate not knowing all the particulars.
It sounds like you all really need to sit down and figure this out if you find you are needing 10 hours of OT 3 weeks into the work arrangement. Constant questioning of pay numbers by nanny or employers can make everyone want out of a nanny care situation.
Your employer ID number will prove to the IRS that you are an employer, and the quarterly taxes you remit will prove you are paying nanny legally.
A work agreement outlines what nanny is expected to do for her weekly paycheck, as well as PTO, holidays, house rules, and so forth. It keeps everyone on the same page as to what the job entails.
A work agreement outlines what nanny is expected to do for her weekly paycheck, as well as PTO, holidays, house rules, and so forth. It keeps everyone on the same page as to what the job entails.
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