Reply to What's the cost of a live-in nanny?

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[quote=nannydebsays][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I just saw someone on my neighborhood listserv looking for a live-in nanny to whom she'd pay $200-$300/week for full-time employment, two kids. She said she'd never had trouble finding someone to fill this role before but that now she was.

I think that is outrageously low and probably illegal. Am I wrong?[/quote]

I saw someone advertising 9-11/hour, but when I talked to her, she wants to pay $200-250 for 40-50 hours.  Yes, it's illegal, number of kids doesn't matter.[/quote]

Rather than telling her it's illegal to hire a nanny for $200-300 per week, I would suggest steering her to the au pair program, which pays au pairs a $200 stipend for up to 45 hours per week.[/quote]
Typical dishonesty. The low stipend is only a small part part of the total costs, not to mention the endless aggravation.[/quote]

[b]Official au pair costs are $375/week. It's more with unofficial costs. I don't think an au pair is actually cheaper than a live-in nanny. It's just a different experience - very different. [/quote]

I make a minimum of $600 per week for 50+ hours.  I would say that yes, an au pair is cheaper.[/quote]

So, with overtime accounted for, your live-in rate is approx $11/hr. Total cost of hosting an AP is $410 week and we use 40 hrs/wk, so avg rate for us is $10.24/hr - not that much of a discount IMO. A HF using the full 45 hrs would have a bigger discount though. [/quote][/b]

Nannies are protected by the FLSA, which means a nanny is legally entitled to be paid at least minimum wage, either Federal or State, whichever is higher. In a few places in the US, LI nannies are also entitled to overtime, but that is the exception, not the general rule.

So an AP makes Federal minimum wage minus 40% for room and board, or $195.75/week for up to 45 hours. Program costs add about $175 to that amount, and then let's say all the "extras" (food, transport, and so on) are another $75/week. That means out of pocket costs for an AP are around $450/week, even though you pay program fees up front.

Now, if you hire a nanny to LI and earn minimum wage, she will actually earn $326.25 for a 45 hour week with no OT. You would likely not have any agency fees to pay, since no agency would place a minimum wage nanny, and you might look at about $75/week in extra costs, plus about $35 in employer taxes. So your total cost for a minimum wage LI nanny would be around $435/week, IF you could find such a rare unicorn.

And if you hire a LO nanny at minimum wage, she will earn $344.38/week, plus the additional $110 mentioned above, so $445/week total employer costs.

Now in the real world, no decent nanny will choose to work for minimum wage, so the actual cost of a nanny is much higher than the cost of an AP.[/quote]

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