This is “banking hours” and is illegal for any household employee.

How do so many of you hire a nanny without understanding the law?

You need to pay her for the time your family will be away, and you don't bank the hours for later use.

--former nanny and current nanny employer

Guaranteed hours is standard for a nanny here. That means that if she is off because of something the employer is choosing, she gets paid for the full-time, no matter if you use it or not. The substituting of hours is not something a professional is going to agree to, nor should they.

I was a nanny for 15 years and every family in that time period paid me when they didn't need me.

Now I have a nanny and I absolutely pay her when we travel. I couldn't fathom nickel and diming the person that cares for the most important part of my life.

The most standard benefit in the nanny world is guaranteed hours. This is the notion that your nanny agrees to hold her regular schedule available for your family and you in turn agree to pay her for those hours including when your family chooses to not utilize her services while she is willing and able to work.

Banking hours is illegal and it's a snub to say "Don't worry I'll pay you for those hours! But then you have to work other hours without pay."

Every family offers their nanny guaranteed hours. If they don't , another family will be glad to have her and provide industry standard benefits.

You pay her. If you want her more as an on call only sitter then tell her that and don’t be surprised if she finds other people to babysit for. You want her to hold those set hours for you every week then you pay for that commitment.

She is right. You scheduled her to work. You pay and pay extra for more time.

You pay her when you tell her you don’t need her. No banking hours, if you want more hours later, you pay her more.

You should have a contract that spells this all out.

Anonymous wrote:Our Nanny works M-F from 8-1p. She is great and we love her. This week we last minute decided to go out of town to my in-laws and leave thursday so she would miss Friday. I told her I would pay her for the full week but asked if should could make up or add some extra hours here and there in the next week. She told me no that is was not fair. Ok. Fine...So my question is, going forward how do you handle this and what is the "rule of thumb" you can make with them. Summer is coming up and this could happen again. Thanks Moms.

Banking hours is illegal. Good lord! She only works four hours a day and you are so cheap that you want to squeeze her for more UNPAID time. You are cheap and disgusting.

If you are asking this question, then you likely don't have a formal contract with her. My mother nannies and she always makes sure that she has guaranteed hours in her contract so gets paid even on days when her employers are on vacation. If she's given enough notice, sometimes my mother will take her paid vacation at the same time but that doesn't happen too often.

If you want her to consider making up hours if this happens again, get it in writing if she agrees to it. I highly doubt she will agree to it and I would advise any nanny against such an arrangement.

If she asked to take off it would be different but I assume you don’t have a contract because if you did she would have guaranteed hrs and get paid regardless since she is available to work her schedule hrs. You can’t bank hrs. Having a nanny is a luxury if you can’t afford one then get an aupair.

You should really have a contract. That said, what she is asking for is guaranteed hours, which is fairly standard. It means that she has a schedule of consistent hours and she guarantees to be available for those hours and you guarantee that she will be paid for them. A nanny can’t plan her life and budget around a schedule you may or may not need and pay for.

Reverse the situation: she tells you Wednesday “Oh, I got a babysitting offer so I won’t be here on Friday, but I can work Sunday if you still want 40 hours of childcare this week.” Would you be fine with that? Most likely not! You need her to be consistently available so you are paying for that consistency.

If you need more flexibility in the schedule you can talk to her and try to negotiate for that and she might be open to that or might not, or she might be open provided that you provide X weeks of notice or that you offer a raise to compensate for a more flexible role or some other thing. But you need to discuss this in detail and create a clear contract.

If you choose to go out of town when your nanny is supposed to work, then you pay them anyway. They don't have to come over to water your plants or bring in your mail, and you don't bank hours. If you want them to work more hours than in the agreed upon contract at a later date, you pay them for those hours.

Here's what I've done in the past (though I think nannies have more leverage now and some might want more):

If I tell her not to come in (ie we are out of town or I'm off work), I still pay her for the day. It's only fair... she's relying on that money and it's not her fault we aren't there. If you want, maybe she could even come in that day and organize the playroom or something.

When I had a relatively loose "nanny" arrangement with a college student, the days she requested off were unpaid. But I let her make it up by adding hours to other days / babysitting for a date night. I did not pay her for any holidays (but I gifted her cash for xmas / bday).

When I had a more professional nanny, her contract stated when she got PTO, paid sick leave and when it would be unpaid.

So if you want a more professional nanny situation, create a contract. If its a looser babysitter situation, you probably don't need to cover days that she cancels on you.

Our Nanny works M-F from 8-1p. She is great and we love her. This week we last minute decided to go out of town to my in-laws and leave thursday so she would miss Friday. I told her I would pay her for the full week but asked if should could make up or add some extra hours here and there in the next week. She told me no that is was not fair. Ok. Fine...So my question is, going forward how do you handle this and what is the "rule of thumb" you can make with them. Summer is coming up and this could happen again. Thanks Moms.