I am paying this perk for my nanny. She asked me for it when starting to work for us. It was my first experience hiring a nanny ever and i agreed. now, I am paying her commute which adds up to about 3K per year. She takes metro and bus every day. I do not like that I am paying for this but whatever. Few more months and my child goes to preschool and I can happily say good bye to nanny

Anonymous wrote:Completely unreasonable. This is perk/benefit to be negotiated and a very uncommon one at that. You could tell her that you'd be willing to revisit the issue at her one year review, but until then you will stick with what was initially agreed upon.

I agree. It can be a negotiated perk, but very rarely. I do have some kind of perk like this in my agreement for one position, but this is because I am a live-in. I have to take public transit for work, and so my boss pays for part of my monthly pass. Because of the fact that living in was supposed to lessen a commute, she pays for more than half of my pass since I also have to take transit to pick up a child at times. Because this means I actually leave their house and spend 30 minutes (or more) to get to them, some days I also have 30 minutes built into my schedule to do so (where I am "being paid" for that time). Very unusual, and it doesn't happen with any of my other live-out PT positions. But a perk that we negotiated when I moved in (switching from a live-out schedule with them to this).

She is not entitled to be paid for her commute time, nor to be reimbursed for the gas and mileage.

Her bringing this up, however, might be her way of saying that she can't handle the cost and/or time involved in the commute any longer. If you like her and would like to keep her working for you, it would be a good idea to discuss this with her ("Molly, I'm sorry, DH and I discussed this and we're just not comfortable paying you your hourly rate for your commute time. This is not something that is typically compensated for in any job. But are you having problems with your commute, has it turned out to be longer than you anticipated?") so you can get a sense whether she is going to quit over this or not.

If she is going to quit, you can then decide if you want to keep her badly enough to offer her a gas stipend (for instance). As I said, she is not entitled to this, but occasionally an employer will make such a gesture (usually when the family is moving farther away, but not always) so if you discover this is a critical problem for her and really want to keep her you can decide how to act.

What kind of pay is she asking for? Gas?

Unless you moved further away from her and asked her to continue working for you, there is no reason why she should even think she's entitled to paid commute.

She's ridiculous.

I bet she wants to get herself a new job because she's just not happy with you.

Unreasonable. Should have been negotiated at the start. Fire her if she does lousy job out of revenge.

She's being very unreasonable. As a nanny I would never think to ask my employers to compensate me for my commute. It's my responsibility to get myself to work as well as cover any costs associated with the commute.

Anonymous wrote:

That's not true. Lots of workers in this area get metro/Marc train vouchers or reimbursement.

Full paid commute would include this PLUS compensation for your time while commuting. At least that's how I interpret OP's post. Very, very rare perk

Anonymous wrote:Totally unreasonable. No one gets paid for their commute, nor should they.

That's not true. Lots of workers in this area get metro/Marc train vouchers or reimbursement. What is not okay is trying to renegotiate before your contract is up.

Totally unreasonable. No one gets paid for their commute, nor should they.

Completely unreasonable. This is perk/benefit to be negotiated and a very uncommon one at that. You could tell her that you'd be willing to revisit the issue at her one year review, but until then you will stick with what was initially agreed upon.

I'm a nanny and that is completely ridiculous. You don't get paid for driving to work.

My nanny who is fairly new (has been with us for 6 months) had recently brought up the topic of paid commute. We have a contract and she never once raised the topic until now. I told her I wouldn't be able to pay for her commute to WORK. I, of course, offer compensation for any activities during her work day that involve transportation but I'm fairly certain that paying for her to get back and fourth to work isn't common. Well, ever since I told her no she has appeared kinda irritated in a passive-aggressive manner. Am I missing something or is she being completely unreasonable?