OP, I'm in your area. Market rate here is $16-$18/hr for the job you describe.

OP you should also ask your nanny what she made her previous job and you should make sure that references are not fake. There are not an insignificant number of lying nannies out there who will claim they were making much more than they actually were and providing fake references. There are some wonderful nannies out there but there are some dishonest and delusional ones as well.

Anonymous wrote:Nanny has over 5 years of experience, CPR/First Aid trained, a BA in an unrelated field, and drives.

We would like the nanny to care for one infant and a toddler full-time, light housekeeping mainly related to the kids and unloading/loading dishwasher as well as preparing dinner often.
What should we offer in terms of salary/hourly or benefits (if any)?

Thanks for any feedback!

OP here: Thanks so much for the feedback, but here is some clarification that may help a little.

Our location is the Chevy Chase area. In addition to the kids meal prep we would LOVE if she could prep dinner for our family occasionally. She will probably work overtime often.

We want to offer a reasonable, but an extremely competitive salary/package. As someone has mentioned, I will definitely ask each candidate, but I would like to have an idea.


Thanks!

I'll agree with those PP's who suggested you look at what you are budgeting for childcare, leave yourself room for yearly raises and new child raises if that may be a factor, and then break your yearly budget down to a weekly "salary" and then break it down to an hourly and an OT rate. don't forget to add about 10% to the gross "salary" to cover your share of taxes!

For example, you can afford to pay $52,000 total for a nanny each year, leaving room for raises. Backing that number down, you take $100 off the top to cover employer tax obligations.

$900 is your gross weekly "salary". If you need 60 hours a week of work, you take 40 hours at straight time and 20 hours at OT. 40+ (20 x 1.5) = 70 hours. Divide $900 by 70 to get your straight time hourly rate of $12.86. Your OT rate then becomes $19.29. Or, if a nanny wants to talk simply her "hourly" rate, ignoring OT laws, you tell her the rate is $15 per hour. YOU need to figure out whether the nanny candidates are talking gross weekly, hourly and OT, or straight hourly, and then you give them the numbers that match their mindset.

Generally speaking, if you want to retain your nanny, you will guarantee to pay her full wage 52 weeks per year.

Determine hours and specific duties. Cooking for kids is within nanny parameters. Cooking for parents is not so some candidates might want more money for that. List benefits you can offer (PTO, paid holidays, etc.)

Then, place your ad and evaluate the type of candidates you hear from. If they are suitable, start interviewing. If they are not what you hoped to find, reevaluate your budget and see if you can raise the rate a bit - that may or may not attract better candidates.

Then interview, screen, check and re-check references, make your offer to your favorite candidate, write and sign a work agreement with her (including the gross weekly rate broken down into straight time and OT), and start off your nanny/family relationship!

As an employer, I was budgeting based on annual expenses and the nannies that we were interviewing were always speaking in terms of weekly gross. Our contract reflects the base and OT as nannies are hourly but the weekly gross/hours is what everyone was using to negotiate.

For 2 kids even with 50 hours, $750-$850 is a good starting salary, $850-$900 is really good and over $1000 is really over the top.

Anonymous wrote:

Out of curiosity, if you hired a nanny at $16/hr, for 40 hrs/wk then down the line had major changes in your employment/home life etc that you now need the nanny 60/hrs a week and then decided okay we're going to bring your rate down to $14/hr
The change LEGALLY, for 20 MORE hours of work is:
$640/week----> $1120/wk

But instead you do
$640/week ---->$980

Hmm I wonder who would go for that for working 150% the original time.
The way you talk you'd probably change to 13/hr, if that, so you can keep your average low.

Uhm, adjusting a rate is legal, especially for an at-will employee, as long as it is over minimum wage.

Anonymous wrote:Clarifying the difference between average rates and base/OT rates for the OP has nothing to do with being cheap unless the nanny posters are trying to manipulate her into thinking the positions warrant a higher overall gross when she establishes her base budget. (This probably is what is going on with them. Ugh.)

I wish I had known about the average rate thing when we were interviewing. I was quoting base rates and one candidate said that was a little too low for her. I thanked her politely and replied that sorry, we were not planning on going higher than X per week for X hours. She quickly responded in surprise that the gross rate I just quoted was great and she thought that I meant an amount that used the average rate. For all future candidates, I asked them to clarify whether they were talking about their average or base rate and all said average.

I have seen nannies on this board post many times how a job that offers fewer hours should and does pay more per hour. You can't have it both ways. If a job with fewer hours pays more then by definition a job with more hours pays less.

Part time jobs payoff per hour because you work significantly less hours and are expected to make a commitment which means there needs to be some compensation so you are still able to make love able wages, especially if the hours requested are at odds with supplementing another part time job. Overtime however is not the same, it is hours outside the realm of the normal work week and is in place to discourage employees being overworked, and there is a reason it is a law.

Employment is meant to be mutually beneficial. Overworking and underpaying is not a mutually beneficial arrangement. Like the PP poster noted, would you re evaluate an decrease an employees pay rate who is ready employed by you at a specific rate? No you probably would not. What you are suggesting is only beneficial to the famy, though some nannies will do this if they desperately need the mp ey, or if they simply do not understand the law. That does not make it right, it just makes you fortunate. That same nanny can offer her services elsewhere and get her same rate accepted.

At the end of the day negotiating is up to the nanny and the family, some will accept this, my guess is most would not. And they would be well within their rights not to.