I don't think your weekly rate is terrible, but that really is a lot of hours.

The PP talking about $34 is referring to the amount of your suggested weekly raise (from 1096 to 1130). I agree that $34/week is a terrible raise considering it is meant to cover both an annual raise and a raise for an additional child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a nanny but I think k what you are paying is drastically low for two children and ridiculously low for three. Just because one is in school does not negate her duties. There will be many days when she has all three. If you want to keep her, sweeten the pot.

This is true, there are a lot of early release days and school holidays. Can I ask whether you think the weekly rate is low? I know the hourly rate is low, but we pay a lot of OT hours every week. I have friends who need only 40 hrs/week and they pay their nannies much less on a weekly or annual basis because of the lack of OT.

You have a nanny that you and your children love and who loves your children. Personally, I would bring her up to $25/hr minimum which is still low for three children. I would also pay half her medical insurance. What is peace of mind for your children worth to you?

Anonymous wrote:I am not a nanny but I think k what you are paying is drastically low for two children and ridiculously low for three. Just because one is in school does not negate her duties. There will be many days when she has all three. If you want to keep her, sweeten the pot.

This is true, there are a lot of early release days and school holidays. Can I ask whether you think the weekly rate is low? I know the hourly rate is low, but we pay a lot of OT hours every week. I have friends who need only 40 hrs/week and they pay their nannies much less on a weekly or annual basis because of the lack of OT.

Anonymous wrote:$34 gross per week for a newborn is not a fair rate. I would not stay at this job for that rate. Do better.

Can you explain the $34 gross? Not sure what that refers to.

Do nannies consider newborns "harder" than older kids? My DC1 was a real handful as a 3 and 4 yo, so I always think of older kids as the more challenging ones in some ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It took me a bit, but I did the math.
Your nanny works 10.25 hours every day, which is 71.75 hours per week.

You're paying her a base rate of $12.50, and an OT rate of $18.75

I think you're drastically underpaying your nanny for even one child, much less three. Those seem like incredibly long hours.

Sorry, what? My nanny does not work 70+ hours per week (or on weekends, which I believe is your math error). I can tell you what her base rate is because we calculated it for her work agreement. It was $18.24/hour for reg, $27.35/hour for OT hours. I think now it's slightly over $19 for reg (didn't write it down) and the corresponding amt for OT. I can concede it's a low hourly rate in this area, but it's not $12.

My mistake! Wow. I'm embarrassed. My brain needs a vacation. Your rate is a little on the low side, but not bad when you consider one is in school most of the time.

Ha! 70+ hr nanny would be one of the only times I'd agree with the common dcum refrain, "why did you even bother having kids"

I am not a nanny but I think k what you are paying is drastically low for two children and ridiculously low for three. Just because one is in school does not negate her duties. There will be many days when she has all three. If you want to keep her, sweeten the pot.

Three kids = $22-25/hr.

$34 gross per week for a newborn is not a fair rate. I would not stay at this job for that rate. Do better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It took me a bit, but I did the math.
Your nanny works 10.25 hours every day, which is 71.75 hours per week.

You're paying her a base rate of $12.50, and an OT rate of $18.75

I think you're drastically underpaying your nanny for even one child, much less three. Those seem like incredibly long hours.

Sorry, what? My nanny does not work 70+ hours per week (or on weekends, which I believe is your math error). I can tell you what her base rate is because we calculated it for her work agreement. It was $18.24/hour for reg, $27.35/hour for OT hours. I think now it's slightly over $19 for reg (didn't write it down) and the corresponding amt for OT. I can concede it's a low hourly rate in this area, but it's not $12.

My mistake! Wow. I'm embarrassed. My brain needs a vacation. Your rate is a little on the low side, but not bad when you consider one is in school most of the time.

Anonymous wrote:It took me a bit, but I did the math.
Your nanny works 10.25 hours every day, which is 71.75 hours per week.

You're paying her a base rate of $12.50, and an OT rate of $18.75

I think you're drastically underpaying your nanny for even one child, much less three. Those seem like incredibly long hours.

Sorry, what? My nanny does not work 70+ hours per week (or on weekends, which I believe is your math error). I can tell you what her base rate is because we calculated it for her work agreement. It was $18.24/hour for reg, $27.35/hour for OT hours. I think now it's slightly over $19 for reg (didn't write it down) and the corresponding amt for OT. I can concede it's a low hourly rate in this area, but it's not $12.

It took me a bit, but I did the math.
Your nanny works 10.25 hours every day, which is 71.75 hours per week.

You're paying her a base rate of $12.50, and an OT rate of $18.75

I think you're drastically underpaying your nanny for even one child, much less three. Those seem like incredibly long hours.

Thanks for the constructive reply. Unfortunately, we are more or less committed to the full-day preschool b/c it is an APS Montessori and we want DCs to be able to roll into the Montessori elementary, and continue to have sibling preference for DC3.

We gave the raise at the beginning of 2017, if I'm remembering right (I'll check), so it will be about 14-15 months between raises.

I would consider two routes:

1. Put your middle child in preschool 2-3 mornings per week and give a larger pay raise to the nanny. You are employing somebody full time to care for your children and then paying preschool almost full time on top of that. Utilize your nanny if she is great. She should be able to provide plenty of developmental opportunities and play dates for your three year old, even with a baby in tow.

2. Give her a standard raise as suggested, maybe $1,150 per week if you are waiting two years in between raises this time.

DH doesn't deserve a nanny like her by the sounds of it

Kids: two DCs and a baby on the way, due in Feb. DC1 will be almost 6 and finishing her K year when new baby comes. She is currently in preschool or summer camp from 9-3:30. DC2 will be a new 3. He is not yet in preschool and is home with the nanny all day, and takes a few classes with her. Regarding baby, I will be home on maternity leave for 12 weeks, so roughly into May 2018. DC2 can start summer camp as a 3 yo in June 2018 and then will go to preschool with DC1 from 9-3:30.

Schedule: nanny works 8:00 to 6:15, M through F. She has both kids in a.m. from 8-8:30 and in p.m. from roughly 4-6:15. Between 8:30-4, she only has DC2. I'm thinking that when DC3 comes along, as soon as we can get DC2 into camp/preschool, she'll have roughly the same schedule, i.e., one kid most of the day (albeit a newborn) and all the kids for 1/2 hour in the morning and 2-2.5 hours in the afternoon, except of course during those times she'll have 3 to deal with instead of just 2.

Pay/benefits: nanny has been with us since mid-2015. We started her at $1057/week. After a year, we gave her a raise to $1096/week, which is her current salary (pay is on the books and properly broken down into an hourly rate incl. OT). We guarantee pay, so if we come home early or take days off to travel, she gets the same pay. My mom comes over regularly once per week around 4:00 and takes the kids, so nanny gets to knock off 2 hours early at least once a week while retaining regular pay. We guarantee two weeks' vacation, one of her choosing and one of ours, but we take more than just our one week per year, so she winds up getting more like 3 weeks off, plus random days. We give a small cash bonus at the holidays. No other benefits such as health care.

What's fair in terms of salary and a potential raise for new baby? We think she's great, our kids love her, we want to keep her happy and also be fair employers. We are in this area and COL is high. Three kids is a lot of work, particularly when one is a newborn. But, we currently pay her $57k per year plus taxes on top of that (we pay ours, not hers), and we pay about $12k/year per preschool year. We can afford it, but it is objectively a lot of money. DH is upset about the overall amt of money being spent in terms of additional years we're on the hook to pay for a nanny due to baby #3, NOT in terms of being fair to our nanny. So, please help me walk this line. Would a bump up to $1130/week be fair? Other suggestions? I will speak with her directly about it, of course, but I want to have something in my mind before I go into that conversation.