Pay cap for long-term nanny?
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Anonymous
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We are fortunate to have had the same nanny for seven years and now the kids are in school full time (K and 2nd grade). We need her to get the kids off to school in the morning and be there for pickup and some after school activities. During the day, she runs errands for us and does laundry, but also has the flexibility to do some of her own errands and appointments. She received a pay increase each year, and is currently making $21/hr plus overtime - gross this past year was 50K. Since the kids are in school most of the day, I feel like this salary rate is kind of topped-out at this point. We also provide a car, car insurance and phone.
What have others done in this situation? Keep raising the rate slightly or add additional perks? |
nannydebsays
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I think at this point you talk to her about her increasing down-time being her "raise". IOW, if you don't need her to work for you 1 or 2 days a week, let her have that time off for her own stuff, unless there is an emergency or the kids are out of school. You'll basically be cutting her hours yet keeping her pay the same.
As a nanny, that's a deal I would gladly take if I wanted to stay with a family when all the kids were in school. Or, you can talk to her about increasing her household management responsibilities (doing family meals, being available for vendors at your home, taking on other tasks you need done but find it hard to accomplish...) and keep giving small raises. And adding additional perks is always welcome. Helping with health insurance costs, adding a gym membership, giving her a monthly mini-spa day...any of those things can stand in for $$ raises. |
Anonymous
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Agree with nanny deb. Her increased down time is more than enough in lieu of a raise.
I love it when I get unexpected down time to do errands. It's nice to have that extra time to go to the post office, bank, stop by Target, run by my apartment...anything like that. |
Anonymous
| Geez, your nanny has it made. Nannydeb is unbelievable. Yes, you should give the nanny full pay but agree to only have her work 3 days out of the five that she is working. If you expect her to open the door for a vendor while she is being paid then you should give her a slight raise or a few mini spa days. Yes, getting your ass off the couch is really a lot of work that needs to be well rewarded. |
nannydebsays
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OP, just to clarify: when I said I meant that your nanny would come in and do the AM and PM shift as normal, but then the time your kids are in school would be her own.
I'll accept that my wording was poor in the "days off" suggestion, but I believe I also used "or" (household management issues) and "and" (additional perks) to indicate the OP could choose from among the numerous suggestions I made. Or the OP can ignore me. 
Obviously, PP, the OP is not going to give a raise, give additional PTO time off, and give bunches of perks. That would be idiotic. But if she wants to keep her nanny, she'll need to do something to make the job appealing despite the LACK of future significant raises. |
Anonymous
NP here. Totally agree. This is why nannies get a bad rap. I am somebody who pays our nanny some of the hours that the kids are in school (we have worked out an arrangment where we can "bank" some time in case kids get sick, during holidays, etc.). But we also pay her $18/hour. I wouldn't dream of paying a nanny $21/hour for - what 40 hours/week - when she is only watching the kids (most weeks) closer to 15 hours/week. Totally insane. $21/hour is high if the kids AREN'T in school at all and just absurd otherwise. We try to fill up our nanny's time with "errands" and other stuff, but she has it made as she RARELY does more than 2-3 hours/week of errands. OP - if your nanny is not grateful for what she has then I suggest you having a real heart to heart with her.... |
Anonymous
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"But if she wants to keep her nanny, she'll need to do something to make the job appealing despite the LACK of future significant raises. "
really???? There are tons of FT jobs paying $21/hr for kids who are at a more self-sufficient age? hmm! encouraging news for job seeking nannies! I'll admit there are some, but i would think OP's nanny would be hard pressed to replicate her situation if OP is offering her FT hrs. |
nannydebsays
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Oooo, sarcasm! So you'd be OK with never getting another raise at all in your job if your responsibilities were slightly reduced, even though generally COL continues to increase? All OP needs to do to make the job appealing is to offer 1 or 2 "free days" when the kids are in school (IOW, nanny is free to do her own thing for 6 hours, as long as she is "on-call" in case of sudden illness). Nannies who work 50+ hours a week have to use PTO to go see their doctor or dentist. A job without raises but WITH free time one day a week when the kids are in school would be fantastic! One of my nanny friends has worked for the same family for 12+ years. She stopped getting raises when both kids were in full day school. She started getting a few hours "on call" during the school year, which gradually increased over the years. Her employers actually crunched the numbers when the "free time" started, and found that thanks to school vacations, teacher workdays, school holidays, and summer break, my friend initially got 4 "free hours" a week on average as an exchange for no raise. Nice, but not exactly 20 hours a week free every single week. |
Anonymous
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OP here. I can see how some may balk at paying a nanny $21/hr when the kids are in school most of the time. However, up until this year, that wasn't the case, and we weren't about to cut her pay. That probably makes us soft employers, but it is worth it to us to keep a stable envirmonment for our children. So our nanny took on additional duties, like grocery shopping, Costco runs, Goodwill dropoffs, library returns, taking the cars in for service and the parent laundry. She is fabulous and is always offering to pitch in. She also volunteers in my son's class once morning a week. Today, she texted me to ask if she could wrap the gifts for a birthday party this weekend. She has definitely made our lives easier this year.
My concern is that I can't justify salary increases in the future, but I do want her to feel valued. It's tough to max out in salary, but I suppose that happens in any field. Thanks for the helpful replies. |
Anonymous
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You have to remember she didn't max out in her field only in her current position. She can find another job with the same rate plus possible raises elsewhere. She may have to look a bit harder and possibly work with more children but she most definitely didn't max out in her field. I care for two infants at $20 per hour with excellent benefits and no errands or house cleaning at all. Its not impossible to find decent jobs.
Eventually, the lack of raises or additional perks will drive the nanny to look elsewhere, its just a matter of when. |
Anonymous
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Although $21/hour is a great hourly wage, it's not the very top. I started 5 months ago with a new family making $20/hour. I know nannies that make $25-$30/hour.
The down time thing is an entirely different issue though. If you only need her a specific set of hours - tell her that. You can increase her hourly pay (which she deserves and I'm sure you can swing), with the caveat that you may be reducing her hours by 10 or so. She can take it or leave it. |
Anonymous
While I am sure there are a few of these nannies out there, it is just wrong to tell OP that her nanny will easily find another job starting off at $21/hour for a full work week, with guaranteed raises. I can only speak to DC nannies, but there can't be more than 1-2% of the new jobs out there that start off at over $20/hour. Almost everything starts between $15-20 / hour (for multiple kids). My nanny (who ended up leaving us on decent terms) was constantly talking about how other nannies she spoke to at the park were making $25+/hour and that she was certain that - when she came back from maternity leave - she would have no problem finding a job getting that amount. I told her she was delusional - just like I think many of the nannies on here are. And guess what - my former nanny had to take a job getting paid $15/hour for 2 kids b/c she couldn't find anything else (and yes, we gave a glowing reference). She made $20/hour with us, because of pay raises each year, so the $5/hour pay cut really took her by surprise. |
Anonymous
| I would give her COLA from now on and that's it. Sounds like she's merged into a sort of "house manager" instead of just a nanny. While she hasn't hit her cap as a nanny, period, I think she's reached her cap for a nanny of 2 in school, which is a significantly different job than caring for 2-yo twins and a newborn, kwim? People who are saying she could leave and make more money elsewhere are correct. She could leave and make more money at many other jobs, but that's comparing apples to oranges because it's not the same job she has now. One kind of nanny gig is not equal to every other kind of nanny job. |
Anonymous
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We're in the exact same boat as the OP. We're at just about $21/hour. We now have our nanny run virtually all of our errands. Personal assistants run about $25/hour (according to agency websites), so I keep telling myself that our nanny pay isn't too out of whack (but I know it's high). With our kids in school and our nanny running errands, I now have our weekends back to spend with our kids. I would sit down with your nanny and make a list of what you are comfortable delegating and what she is comfortable doing and then keep a running list. I haven't bought or wrapped a single birthday present or picked up/dropped off dry cleaning in a year. It's great. I have watches with batteries that work, packages get mailed out, clothing donated, and meals prepared for us.
In terms of the raise aspect -- I just don't feel right now giving a raise, especially since the payroll tax pulled an extra chunk out of our nanny's paycheck. The raise, however, will be small and much smaller than usual. We also are contemplating offering a quarterly bonus instead of a raise. In the end, it's still money, but our nanny might prefer to have a real amount of money rather than an extra $10/week or whatever the raise ended up being You also could offer an IRA benefit in lieu of a raise. Does your nanny have a child? You could offer to open up a 529 plan -- though still money, I think you could get a tax benefit off of it? (not sure, you'd have to look into it). I do think it is appropriate to sit down and have an honest discussion with your nanny, because you are going to keep running into this year after year. Best to sit down and explain that raises aren't going to be every year and ask for feedback. Your nanny might be worried about her job too. |
Anonymous
| This is a bit ridiculous. I know the nannies of co workers that are professional and legal that accept much lower salaries caring for younger children. We recently interviewed two nannies that that have been out of work for almost a year because they could not find similar pay as their old work situations. Needless to say we did not hire them and laughed at their 20 per hour and 16 hour salary requisite. |