Reply to Hourly rate for nanny, short vs long term?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is actually quite odd to me. Usually, people with many years of experience are upset that newbies with no experience come in and are paid the same or more, because it makes them feel like the employer doesn't value their experience and skill, and sees them as interchangeable with any other cog fresh out of college. I can understand advocating for everyone else to make a decent living wage, but is that base really $30/hour where you live?

I would do 3 separate 1:1 conversations. With the nanny, explain that you are paying her $30 because of the long history, and her experience not just in general but specifically with your family is valuable in a way that would be impossible to replace. I would not put any pressure on her not to disclose her rate to others in the future; I'm not even sure that's legal and you don't know, it's possible the housekeeper put her in an awkward situation or somehow got a look at her paycheck. With the housekeeper, be polite, thank her for her work, and don't push back against her feelings, but say that it would be unfair to change an agreed-upon rate after the fact (she would want the same protection too, if you somehow found out she was babysitting other kids for less money and wanted to lower her rate retroactively). With the neighbor, emphasize how much you appreciated the arrangement and extra help, be tactful and not too detailed in describing the disagreement with the housekeeper and say what your thought process / rationale was, be apologetic about any awkwardness you may have caused, and say you will try to prevent any similar misunderstanding in the future. If I were you, I probably wouldn't ask for that housekeeper's help again, but you don't need to be explicit about it or say that to anyone in anger.

In the future, I would also say that if you don't want your employees to talk among themselves and base salary expectations off what the other's making, you shouldn't ask another employer (your neighbor) what they're paying your employee either. Discuss pay with each person directly based on the exact circumstances of the job and the people involved.

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Do you think it’s possible to ask an employee not to discuss their compensation? That’s what I wanted to do but DH they’re all going to talk either way so we can’t really influence it. We do have a full employment agreement with our nanny which includes her compensation and a confidentiality agreement that both of us should adhere to [/quote]

I am the previous poster and would again strongly discourage you from saying anything about this, OP. Maybe an actual lawyer can weigh in here, but my 5-second Google search indicates that employers CANNOT prohibit or punish employees for discussing compensation (https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-my-employer-prohibit-me-from-discussing-my-pay-with-my-coworkers.html).

A confidentiality agreement is for protecting YOUR personal info that the nanny might learn in the course of working in your home, like whether your kid has an LD diagnosis or how much you owe on your mortgage, but I think the nanny's salary is HER personal info. I know I would bristle if my company tried to prohibit us from discussing our pay/bonuses (even though I try to avoid such discussions anyway). Such a policy would probably backfire as I have too many smart-aleck coworkers who would go around starting such discussions just to spite management, once they found out such policies were illegal and unenforceable.

Also, I don't know if you asked or your neighbor proactively shared the housekeeper's salary, but it really should be irrelevant; she's a live-in (a monetary and possibly convenience benefit) and her duties for your neighbor are likely a little different from what she does for you. In the future, if you hire someone off a friend's referral, please talk to the potential employee directly about pay expectations. I'm not saying $20/hour is too low, but if you set the salary based on what someone made in a previous job, I think it's equally logical (or illogical) if they want to set the salary based on what you paid a previous employee. That's not a legal requriement, but in my opinion, that's a fair and reciprocal principle to follow in general.[/quote]

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