And if one of them needs to end early?

OP, you can make this agreement with your nanny. You just need to be clear on how the finances work. If your intent is to pay $[weekly amount]/wk, then for the school year you'd have to determine what hourly rate x 32 that would get you to that amount. (Equation is "[weekly amount]/32 = hourly rate".). For vacations and summer, you'd have to determine what "x" is in the equation "40x + 6(1.5x) = [weekly amount]." What it means is that the hourly rate would be higher during the school year and lower during the summer.

You can certainly do this legally - but you should document it accordingly. Put it all down on paper, take a look at it, make sure you understand it, then propose it to your nanny. Sign a contract with the specified rates per calendar period. Personally, for the sake of simplicity I'd probably just stick with the "school year" hourly rate over winter break so I didn't have to adjust the math, but that would mean a larger paycheck for that break so you may not want to do it.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:If your nanny is ok with it, then go for it. While there are so many people that get bent out of shape if they don't get overtime for working one minute over 40 hours a week, if you and your nanny come to an agreement and it is signed, then do it.

Yes, laws be damned. There's a sucker born everyone minute, so I'm sure OP can find one. However she has made clear her desire to be fair and to abide by the law. We aren't talking about 1 minute of overtime, we're talking about 6 hours each week during the summer.

If your nanny is ok with it, then go for it. While there are so many people that get bent out of shape if they don't get overtime for working one minute over 40 hours a week, if you and your nanny come to an agreement and it is signed, then do it.

Your typical nanny is going to come work for you in September, take the salary, and then quit in May once she has to work more than 40 hours a week for the same salary she was making working only after school. She probably had a whole pet-sitting gig giving her extra cash during the day while your kids were in school, that would mean her income declined and workload increased once summer hit. And she probably took her vacation week during the winter break week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. What if I did the schedule and paid it based on the hours worked? I can't imagine that would be attractive to people. But interested in thoughts.

I mean paid on the hours worked, with, of course, applicable service terms.

I seriously shouldn't multi-task...I meant "applicable OVERTIME" not service terms. That was work getting in the way.

Thanks for info on the nanny overtime. I always paid overtime for time over 40 but I didn't know the basis behind the classification. That's really helpful.

Anonymous wrote:If I pay a salary as opposed to hourly, I'm not sure that I understand how this is illegal. I'd be greatly appreciative if anyone could point me to the rules that explain how this works. I'm not trying to be snarky, I simply don't understand what the parameters are and I want to be 100% in the law.

Nannies are by definition of the federal government hourly employees, covered by the FLSA and entitled to pay for every hour worked/OT after 40. The reason your setup is illegal is because your nanny would be entitled to the OT in the pay period she worked it. OT hours =/= base hours.

http://www.4nannytaxes.com/index.cfm/faq/nannyhousekeeper-faq-list/exempt-nonexempt-employment/

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. What if I did the schedule and paid it based on the hours worked? I can't imagine that would be attractive to people. But interested in thoughts.

I mean paid on the hours worked, with, of course, applicable service terms.

OP here again. What if I did the schedule and paid it based on the hours worked? I can't imagine that would be attractive to people. But interested in thoughts.

Anonymous wrote:If I pay a salary as opposed to hourly, I'm not sure that I understand how this is illegal. I'd be greatly appreciative if anyone could point me to the rules that explain how this works. I'm not trying to be snarky, I simply don't understand what the parameters are and I want to be 100% in the law.

Do you understand OT requirements?

If I pay a salary as opposed to hourly, I'm not sure that I understand how this is illegal. I'd be greatly appreciative if anyone could point me to the rules that explain how this works. I'm not trying to be snarky, I simply don't understand what the parameters are and I want to be 100% in the law.

This would be a great set up for many nannies. Keep in mind, though, that this is all based on the assumption one nanny will remain with you the whole year. If something would happen and you have to switch nannies, one of you is going to end up losing out on money.

Problem is that this isn't legal. You can't bank and prepay hours outside a pay period. I'm sure you can find someone happy with the schedule, even if it doesn't work for everyone, but you have to configure the pay with a base and OT rate that actually pays for every hour worked. (Ie you can overpay but not underpay)

It's illegal. You are required to pay OT.

When kids are in school, 32 hours/ week. When kids not in school (including teacher work days, spring break (if we don't travel), one week of winter vacation, and summer, 46 hours/week. We would pay the SAME salary the entire year, which would be based off of a 40-hour work week. If my math is right, it works out to working on average 35 hours/week, but getting paid for 40 hours. So, while the overtime is not explicitly paid, the salary takes summer overtime into account. We would provide a set schedule that we could give a full year in advance, and anything beyond the set schedule would be treated a overtime. I'm thinking of proposing this to our current nanny, but I don't want her to be upset, so I'm curious of whether this sounds like it would be of interest more generally.