Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good childcare is expensive, OP, especially for twins. For what you will be making above what you'll need to pay a qualified nanny, you should definitely stay home.

I disagree with this. Stay in the workforce unless you really, really want to be a SAHM. The cost of child care comes out of your total family budget, not one person's salary, and is an investment in your future earnings, your retirement and seniority, and your ability to maintain your position in the workforce.

It is a painful amount of money, but it is only for a brief season of your life. Dropping out of the workforce can turn into a much longer-lived situation.

Also, you have two kids. Daycare is not going to be much cheaper.

Thank you thank you thank you for posting this. I see women in my office dropping out of the work force because of this calculus, and then when they come back in a few years later, they've entirely reset their baseline so their lifetime earnings will never catchup to where they would have been. This is how we perpetuate the 'gender gap'. Similar things happen, albeit to a lesser degree, when someone opts for full-time graduate school instead of going for an evening program in a professional degree.

OP -- it is realistically 2-3 years that will be very intense on your family (financially and just as a matter of life dealing with very young children) before your children are in preschool. At that point, the calculus changes again. If you already have a nanny in your life who is a part of your family and wants to grow with you, it makes these transitions that much easier along the way. We have been lucky enough to have a wonderful nanny in our life for many years and the role she plays in "having it all" cannot be understated.

Remember that many families purposely have nannies only Monday to Thursday or half days to cut the hours and be more affordable. Many moms so flextime or cut their hours since paying 35, 40, 45, 50+ hours each week is very costly.
So when your friend says she has a nanny at xyz rate but isn't telling you how few hours, think about it. In NYC where we came from most people paid a fix amount per week for considerable hours.

Start with the day care rates and then see how much more you'd prefer a nanny at market rates ($14-16/hr one child, $16-18/hr 2 children).
Also look at nanny shares since the rate per family is half of the above rates.
Factor in any agency cut in your math.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. As PPs have noted, my question was about what I can expect to pay. If I can't afford it, I'll consider not going back to work. But I'd rather not start with a set figure and then work backwards into hiring a crappy nanny because I wont pay more for a good one . But I guess I can look at it the other way too: My take-home pay is roughly $65K and I guess I was hoping the total costs for a nanny would be under $50K. Thanks to the PP who listed all associated costs. We don't want our nanny to drive and the babies won't take classes so that'll shave some expenses off.

OP, do you live in easy walking distance to parks, libraries, and other places where Nanny can go with your kids? If you are seeking a long term Nanny, you will need to let her go out with the kids occasionally. If you find that idea silly, think about it again after you confine yourself to your house with 2 babies 10+ hours a day for 5 days straight.

No one is happy stuck at home alone with 2 babies. Not allowing reasonable outings will seriously minimize your pool of candidates.

Anonymous wrote:Good childcare is expensive, OP, especially for twins. For what you will be making above what you'll need to pay a qualified nanny, you should definitely stay home.

I disagree with this. Stay in the workforce unless you really, really want to be a SAHM. The cost of child care comes out of your total family budget, not one person's salary, and is an investment in your future earnings, your retirement and seniority, and your ability to maintain your position in the workforce.

It is a painful amount of money, but it is only for a brief season of your life. Dropping out of the workforce can turn into a much longer-lived situation.

Also, you have two kids. Daycare is not going to be much cheaper.

Good childcare is expensive, OP, especially for twins. For what you will be making above what you'll need to pay a qualified nanny, you should definitely stay home.

OK, here is what I was paying for a nanny in close-in Silver Spring for two children. She was young, and only had about 2 years of experience, but she was very good with the children (and had the basics like CPR/First Aid certification and some college):

$17/hr x 40 hrs/wk x 52 weeks (guaranteed hours; if you need overtime, 1.5 times that)
+ FICA taxes (7.65%, payable on our federal tax return)
+ unemployment insurance (state was 2% of payroll for first $7500 (I think) first year; went down after that. There was also a little federal UI to pay on our tax return)
+ Worker's Comp (about $800/yr, because my homeowner's wouldn't cover it)
+ Christmas bonus ($500 -- many people do 1 week's pay, I don't)
+ hiring temps to cover paid vacation and sick days when necessary (I give 12 days that can be used whenever the nanny wants for any purpose)
+ probably $100-$200 for various gifts (birthday, just because)
+ probably another $500 for various meals, entry fees, etc. for activities she did with the kids

This comes to ... $41,525. Assuming 10 hours of overtime a week, you would add $13,000 just in salary.

You can find nannies willing to work for a "flat" rate, it just wouldn't be really flat. So, you might say $17/hr on average for all 50 hours to come up with a salary of $850/week, but the real rate is closer to $15/hr for the first 40 hours, and overtime rate of $22.50/hr for 10 hours. Any additional hours would be $22.50/hr.

OP here. As PPs have noted, my question was about what I can expect to pay. If I can't afford it, I'll consider not going back to work. But I'd rather not start with a set figure and then work backwards into hiring a crappy nanny because I wont pay more for a good one . But I guess I can look at it the other way too: My take-home pay is roughly $65K and I guess I was hoping the total costs for a nanny would be under $50K. Thanks to the PP who listed all associated costs. We don't want our nanny to drive and the babies won't take classes so that'll shave some expenses off.

Anonymous



No when people state their hourly rate it does not include all the extras. 40 hr a week for six month old twins I would expect to pay around 18-20 per hr. This does not include your employer taxes ect. And your nanny pays her own taxes out of her hourly rate so 18-20 per hr is not her take home pay.

This is true. You do need to include OT, so you might need to alter your base rate to accommodate OT.

Health insurance is a lovely perk, but not common in the first year. Guaranteed hours are much more common.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op how much a year can you afford and how many hrs per week do you need. That might help to figure out an hourly rate.

wrong, you don't do it like this, you research the market. It's like me going to 7-11 and saying I need 500,000 a year and want to work 2 hours a day. No, you look at the market rate and compare it to what is being offered.

Well on this thread everywhere between 12-20 has been mentioned. Maybe asking op what she can afford and for how many hrs she needs is a good question.

Anonymous wrote:Op how much a year can you afford and how many hrs per week do you need. That might help to figure out an hourly rate.

wrong, you don't do it like this, you research the market. It's like me going to 7-11 and saying I need 500,000 a year and want to work 2 hours a day. No, you look at the market rate and compare it to what is being offered.

Op how much a year can you afford and how many hrs per week do you need. That might help to figure out an hourly rate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes so I need to pay time and a half for anything over 40 hours?

Absolutely.

40 hour at $20 is 41,600 a year before your share of taxes
Health insurance $150 a month is 1800, you don't need to tax it
Yearly bonus 1 week $800, legally has to be taxed

Plus gas reimbursement, petty cash, classes for the childern; let's say comes to 2k for the year

You're looking at 46k before taxes. So I'd say easily around 50k after you get tax breaks/credits.

Add another 15k if you want 50 hours a week.

So somewhere between 50-60k a year

That's cute. My first job out of college as an investment banking analyst in NYC paid $49,500.

Gas reimbursement, petty cash and classes for children would never be factored into a "salary" for the nanny -- those are incidentals that are receipt/based reimbursements, and I can't imagine asking my nanny to pay for registration fees for classes anyway.

An annual salary of $46,000, is about $16/hr at 50 hrs (factoring in OT) and more than most Congressional staffers, Federal employees, and non-profit employees make in DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes so I need to pay time and a half for anything over 40 hours?

Absolutely.

40 hour at $20 is 41,600 a year before your share of taxes
Health insurance $150 a month is 1800, you don't need to tax it
Yearly bonus 1 week $800, legally has to be taxed

Plus gas reimbursement, petty cash, classes for the childern; let's say comes to 2k for the year

You're looking at 46k before taxes. So I'd say easily around 50k after you get tax breaks/credits.

Add another 15k if you want 50 hours a week.

So somewhere between 50-60k a year

Hahhaha. What a hoot. DCUM is such a joke.

LOL, I think the nanny should try to shoot for 90k - 120k a year. Why stop at 60k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes so I need to pay time and a half for anything over 40 hours?

Absolutely.

40 hour at $20 is 41,600 a year before your share of taxes
Health insurance $150 a month is 1800, you don't need to tax it
Yearly bonus 1 week $800, legally has to be taxed

Plus gas reimbursement, petty cash, classes for the childern; let's say comes to 2k for the year

You're looking at 46k before taxes. So I'd say easily around 50k after you get tax breaks/credits.

Add another 15k if you want 50 hours a week.

So somewhere between 50-60k a year

Hahhaha. What a hoot. DCUM is such a joke.