OP: It is absolutely fine not to guarantee OT, and you will find plenty of great candidates who are happy to accept a job on the condition that OT is not guaranteed but she must be available as needed to work up to 50 hours a week within specified hours (say 8 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday). It is true that nannies will worry about their ability to make ends meet based solely on the guaranteed weekly pay, and they may want a higher base rate to offset that. You can address this while maintaining the flexibility you seek by either guaranteeing a certain number of hours of OT per month or per quarter, by guaranteeing a certain minimum compensation per month or quarter, or by providing and honoring a good faith estimate of how many hours she will work in a typical week, meaning a week with no holidays or vacation days.

Anonymous wrote:Guaranteed hours are a great benefit but this is a perk that is not offered at all jobs. OP- offering a minimum guarantee is fine. Its a negotiated perk and doesn't have to equal the weekly gross/schedule. You just want to make sure that you do in terms of gross amount not "hours" to avoid the average vs base/OT issue.

I have a friend who does this because they travel 4 weeks out of the year. She offers 1/3 weekly gross on those weeks that she doesn't need the nanny. I'm sure that nannydeb will tell you to offer 100% plus a few mini spa days thrown in and plane fare in case the nanny wants to travel but my friend had no problem finding nannies to take this job.

+1 LOL. Agreed

8:11 and 8:24 make good points.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks 8:24; I didn't think about it that way.

Which begs the question, have you truly given any thought to this?

This is the OP- The reality that we don't need a housekeeper, but we do need someone reliable for 90 minutes in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon, and during vacations/summer to watch our two children. Needless to say, finding someone for a dual/short shift is next to impossible so we are trying to turn the position into a full time job to open up the applicant pool a bit. We currently have someone for 50 hours per week so we will most likely stay with 50 hours. If we find the right person we hope it will be mutually beneficial to have a long-term relationship.

OP, you haven't responded to the issue multiple PPs have pointed out. How will you feel when your nanny/housekeeper is not always available for the extra 10 hours/week that you need but aren't willing to guarantee?

She just wouldn't hire you. Lots of nannies don't have ANY guaranteed hours.