Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can feel however you want, but the fact is that guaranteed hours are expected and common. In exchange, the nanny offers stable availability every week, rather than needing to schedule extra jobs to supplement her unexpected and unpredictable change in income.

Surely you can see how much more common it would be for a nanny to lose out on some of her anticipated work time than it is for your place of employment to lose power. How often does that happen anyway? If my experience is anything to go by, most parents would change the schedule WEEKLY if they could. Luckily I'm not an indentured servant so we set it ahead of time.

I've never considered offering guaranteed hours to any of our many nannies over the last 7+ years. I have never had a difficult time finding anyone to take the job.

And this is why your opinion is of little consequence. You may not have trouble finding someone, but you clearly have trouble keeping them. Guaranteed hours are expected. No one wants to deal with you screwing with their schedule every week and a good nanny doesn't need to.

Anonymous wrote:You can feel however you want, but the fact is that guaranteed hours are expected and common. In exchange, the nanny offers stable availability every week, rather than needing to schedule extra jobs to supplement her unexpected and unpredictable change in income.

Surely you can see how much more common it would be for a nanny to lose out on some of her anticipated work time than it is for your place of employment to lose power. How often does that happen anyway? If my experience is anything to go by, most parents would change the schedule WEEKLY if they could. Luckily I'm not an indentured servant so we set it ahead of time.

I've never considered offering guaranteed hours to any of our many nannies over the last 7+ years. I have never had a difficult time finding anyone to take the job.

You can feel however you want, but the fact is that guaranteed hours are expected and common. In exchange, the nanny offers stable availability every week, rather than needing to schedule extra jobs to supplement her unexpected and unpredictable change in income.

Surely you can see how much more common it would be for a nanny to lose out on some of her anticipated work time than it is for your place of employment to lose power. How often does that happen anyway? If my experience is anything to go by, most parents would change the schedule WEEKLY if they could. Luckily I'm not an indentured servant so we set it ahead of time.

nannydebsays wrote:I would start your search 3 months out, because some nannies actually respect the notice clauses in their contracts, and if you find a nanny in March who has to give 6 weeks notice, you'll be cutting things close by the time you've made an offer and signed a contract.

As far as your pay is concerned, 50 hours including OT at $15 - 17/hour is $825 - 935/week gross. Whether that's average, good, or great depends on where you live and what kind of nanny you are looking to hire.

I would offer 15 days PTO though to cover vacation, sick leave, etc. You can require that one of nanny's weeks off matches one of yours.

And guaranteed hours (same pay 52 weeks a year) have become more of an expectation than an extra, IMO.

I disagree. If nanny isn't working why should she be getting paid? All kind of other professional level jobs are the same. I've had employers that had a power outage and sent us home early without pay.

I would start your search 3 months out, because some nannies actually respect the notice clauses in their contracts, and if you find a nanny in March who has to give 6 weeks notice, you'll be cutting things close by the time you've made an offer and signed a contract.

As far as your pay is concerned, 50 hours including OT at $15 - 17/hour is $825 - 935/week gross. Whether that's average, good, or great depends on where you live and what kind of nanny you are looking to hire.

I would offer 15 days PTO though to cover vacation, sick leave, etc. You can require that one of nanny's weeks off matches one of yours.

And guaranteed hours (same pay 52 weeks a year) have become more of an expectation than an extra, IMO.

Anonymous wrote:I need a live out nanny to work 50 hours starting from May 1, planning to pay $15-17 base, with 1-2 weeks vacation. Infant and toddler. Do I start looking around from Feb 1? Or earlier? Or does it depend on something else.

Offering $15 in DC? Better start looking now and good luck.

Anonymous wrote:You're going to run into problems with the vacation. You can do 1 week her choice, 1 week yours, but only offering 5 days of vacation for a caregiver working 50 hours per week with very young children is a recipe for burnout. Also not sure where you're located, but your rate sounds low to me. $15-17 is a decent rate for one infant, but you have a toddler as well, and you're thinking of offering less than standard PTO. If your plan is to have nanny care for the children when sick, which is completely standard, you should also plan to offer some sick time. If you don't, and your family gets her sick, she will not be happy when you dock her pay for it.

Sorry, to answer your actual question, I would suggest starting about 3 months out. If you're offering on the low end of compensation, it may take time to adjust your ad and your expectations to find the right person. Also consider that any good nanny leaving a position is going to want to give ample notice. How much time would you want if your nanny was leaving? Likely more than a week or two right?

You're going to run into problems with the vacation. You can do 1 week her choice, 1 week yours, but only offering 5 days of vacation for a caregiver working 50 hours per week with very young children is a recipe for burnout. Also not sure where you're located, but your rate sounds low to me. $15-17 is a decent rate for one infant, but you have a toddler as well, and you're thinking of offering less than standard PTO. If your plan is to have nanny care for the children when sick, which is completely standard, you should also plan to offer some sick time. If you don't, and your family gets her sick, she will not be happy when you dock her pay for it.

But you'll need to offer 2 weeks of vacation. You want a caregiver who is rested.

4-8 weeks before the job starts.

I would begin my nanny search about six weeks to two months prior.

Reason being is that you don't want to risk hiring someone who may get a better job offer in the meantime and will leave you high and dry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think beginning the search 45-60 days before you'll need the person to start is ideal.

BTW, you need to be clear on how much vacation you're offering. Why would you offer LESS than two weeks? That's the standard minimum. Also, you should be sure to let people know you'll of course comply with the law by paying overtime at time and a half for ten of those 50 hours.

OT, sure of course. I'd prefer nanny take closer to 1 week rather than 2 because my own vacation days off is ten days and inevitably I end up using some of those days when my toddler is sick and clingy to me so I'd have to find one day babysitters here and there. Or do nannies care for the sick child? I only have experience sending toddler to daycare and daycare doesn't accept your child on days when the child is sick.

I am a nanny and I have always cared for my charge when he was sick. It is one of the reasons parents hire nannies. A week might be okay to start but you will definitely need to go up to two weeks after the first year.

Anonymous wrote:I think beginning the search 45-60 days before you'll need the person to start is ideal.

BTW, you need to be clear on how much vacation you're offering. Why would you offer LESS than two weeks? That's the standard minimum. Also, you should be sure to let people know you'll of course comply with the law by paying overtime at time and a half for ten of those 50 hours.

OT, sure of course. I'd prefer nanny take closer to 1 week rather than 2 because my own vacation days off is ten days and inevitably I end up using some of those days when my toddler is sick and clingy to me so I'd have to find one day babysitters here and there. Or do nannies care for the sick child? I only have experience sending toddler to daycare and daycare doesn't accept your child on days when the child is sick.

I think beginning the search 45-60 days before you'll need the person to start is ideal.

BTW, you need to be clear on how much vacation you're offering. Why would you offer LESS than two weeks? That's the standard minimum. Also, you should be sure to let people know you'll of course comply with the law by paying overtime at time and a half for ten of those 50 hours.

I need a live out nanny to work 50 hours starting from May 1, planning to pay $15-17 base, with 1-2 weeks vacation. Infant and toddler. Do I start looking around from Feb 1? Or earlier? Or does it depend on something else.