Reply to Nanny pay while away on vacation and holidays?

Forum Index » General Discussion

Reply to "Nanny pay while away on vacation and holidays?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote]
        You've touched on an important point PP, which is that most families can and do come up with an annual budget for childcare. That budget can be sliced up in any number of ways based on the nanny's priorities. She wants insurance and PTO? No problem, but the cost of those perks will probably be reflected in a lower hourly rate. She doesn't care about PTO but has a fixation on being able to tell people that she gets $20 per hour? Fine, because money and PTO are usually fungible from the parents perspective.

So the problem is not that families can't budget for guaranteed weekly pay, and it is not that the request itself is unreasonable. The problem is that nannies deprive the employer of the opportunity to budget for it by failing to clearly make the request until after the parents have agreed to an hourly rate request, effectively applying their child care budget solely to that one form of compensation. And many parents are truly blindsided by the request when it arises a few months into the nanny's tenure, because in most segments of the economy, an hourly rate job as opposed to a salaried job means the employee gets paid only when she actually works.

This is a really good post, PP, and might help nannies better understand the negotiating process from the family's perspective. Thank you.

I understand it from your point of view. I also believe it should be discussed up front. It does continue to boggle my mind that parents need to be told that not paying the nanny because YOU chose to go on vacation will be a hardship to your nanny and may cost you your childcare. I understand the budget can be worked out in a number of ways, it just seems that pay for 52 weeks per year is a given. This is a person we are talking about not a robot you turn off before skipping town. [/quote]

I don't think we disagree. Of course it's a hardship to have a job without guaranteed hours. But they aren't a given. They are part of a larger compensation package, which is exactly why they need to be negotiated up front. If it's a deal killer for you, and it would be for me, than that is the first thing you get in the contract, even if it means a trade off in other potential benefits, like PTO or a higher hourly rate. If you don't negotiate for it, and you settle for other benefits, you can't go back because the budget is allocated.

It's really important for nannies to know what they want and to get it in the contract. There are many jobs (outside of nannying) that are hourly and do not have guaranteed hours. If a family is interviewing for a nanny for the first time, they may not be familiar with guaranteed hours, especially if their own experience with hourly jobs are administrative or retail. For example, none of the admins at my workplace get guaranteed hours (not my choice, I don't own the place). When we are closed, they are unpaid. This likely stresses peoples' budgets. Yet, we have no problem filling these positions because the economy is what it is and people need jobs. The nanny world has different expectations. No problem. Just make sure you get the benefits you need and want in your contract.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics