Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pay for cleaning $70-80 per 1.5h. I am not sure if you can find someone willing to clean your house for $15-$20/h. If you do, please let me know. I will hire her too.

You're overpaying if it really only takes 1.5 hours to clean your house for one person. $25-$35/hr (about $75 per average house) is more common.

Also, the difference is that a cleaner of that sort has to book many, many gigs in many different locations, collect from many different people, negotiate duties and terms with many different families, etc.. And she'd have a constantly changing roster of clients, some who want weekly, some bi-weekly, some only occasionally, etc.. A guaranteed income of, say $150/day with one employer and one commute is not such a bad trade off.

Just because you see little value in professional housekeeping or childcare, doesn't mean anything to the rest of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pay for cleaning $70-80 per 1.5h. I am not sure if you can find someone willing to clean your house for $15-$20/h. If you do, please let me know. I will hire her too.

You're overpaying if it really only takes 1.5 hours to clean your house for one person. $25-$35/hr (about $75 per average house) is more common.

Also, the difference is that a cleaner of that sort has to book many, many gigs in many different locations, collect from many different people, negotiate duties and terms with many different families, etc.. And she'd have a constantly changing roster of clients, some who want weekly, some bi-weekly, some only occasionally, etc.. A guaranteed income of, say $150/day with one employer and one commute is not such a bad trade off.

Anonymous wrote:I pay for cleaning $70-80 per 1.5h. I am not sure if you can find someone willing to clean your house for $15-$20/h. If you do, please let me know. I will hire her too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to bring more to the table to command a higher price.

I think with the things you described and chose to mention that $15-17/hr is the correct range for you. I am not sure how much more you are hoping to earn per hour, but lets assume you want to be make more than $22/hr, I think you would really need to have maybe 10 years of full-time nannying experience to ASK for that salary (you could always get lucky and find a rich family who really likes you that might pay $25/hr, but I'm saying you need these things to ask for this salary from the general public.) Depending on the ages of kids you work with you should have some special relevant skills for that family. I work with families with older children so I can only really speak for them, but some things I've noticed in others that earn in the upper range:

- Be an american citizen with no accent
- Speak a european language, not Spanish, fluently.
- Be something hard to find like a certified teacher or actually even a guy (I have seen career male nannies with lots of experience get huge salaries.)
- Be exceptional at a sport or two, black belt in TKD, USSF licensed soccer coach or ex-varsity player, gymnastics coach at a competitive level, competitive swimmer, something certifiable and provable
- Have hobbies that the parents would like their kids to experience, examples like running if their kids on the track team, mountain biking if they have a bunch of boys, painting or dancing (again, be good, you could show them pictures of your paintings or videos of you dancing with a dance team) if they have girls
- Be a good cook, even if for the kids only you want to let the parents know you won't be making hotdogs and mac and cheese every day. You can also teach the kids.
- Have experience in things like allergies/EPI pens, asthma management, insulin injections/monitoring, etc.
- Be CPR/etc certified without lapsing
- It's a plus I think if you are working or volunteering somewhere where you are background checked (school, sports coach, etc) because that seems to carry more weight to a parent knowing that you are not just handing them a paper that looks like a background check but that a respected company/organization also reviewed it and trusts the results


For babies change all the sports stuff to all those baby buzz topics (but again make sure you can prove skill and proficiency and not just say you've done it before) like baby sing language, etc (idk any of this stuff, maybe someone else can respond.)

Oh, just stop. You'd get laughed right out of the parents' career forum, with some of your recommendations. You're just mad.

Anonymous wrote:You need to bring more to the table to command a higher price.

I think with the things you described and chose to mention that $15-17/hr is the correct range for you. I am not sure how much more you are hoping to earn per hour, but lets assume you want to be make more than $22/hr, I think you would really need to have maybe 10 years of full-time nannying experience to ASK for that salary (you could always get lucky and find a rich family who really likes you that might pay $25/hr, but I'm saying you need these things to ask for this salary from the general public.) Depending on the ages of kids you work with you should have some special relevant skills for that family. I work with families with older children so I can only really speak for them, but some things I've noticed in others that earn in the upper range:

- Be an american citizen with no accent
- Speak a european language, not Spanish, fluently.
- Be something hard to find like a certified teacher or actually even a guy (I have seen career male nannies with lots of experience get huge salaries.)
- Be exceptional at a sport or two, black belt in TKD, USSF licensed soccer coach or ex-varsity player, gymnastics coach at a competitive level, competitive swimmer, something certifiable and provable
- Have hobbies that the parents would like their kids to experience, examples like running if their kids on the track team, mountain biking if they have a bunch of boys, painting or dancing (again, be good, you could show them pictures of your paintings or videos of you dancing with a dance team) if they have girls
- Be a good cook, even if for the kids only you want to let the parents know you won't be making hotdogs and mac and cheese every day. You can also teach the kids.
- Have experience in things like allergies/EPI pens, asthma management, insulin injections/monitoring, etc.
- Be CPR/etc certified without lapsing
- It's a plus I think if you are working or volunteering somewhere where you are background checked (school, sports coach, etc) because that seems to carry more weight to a parent knowing that you are not just handing them a paper that looks like a background check but that a respected company/organization also reviewed it and trusts the results


For babies change all the sports stuff to all those baby buzz topics (but again make sure you can prove skill and proficiency and not just say you've done it before) like baby sing language, etc (idk any of this stuff, maybe someone else can respond.)

Anonymous wrote:OP Here - I have worked with one family for 3 years but have 7 years of paid experience which is all stated on my SitterCity profile which is why I have so many reviews over the course of the past few years. I said 3 years because I have been with a family continuously and exclusive, I thought that would show some form of longevity and loyalty on my end. Sorry for the confusion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - three years with one family is not really a lot of experience, which may be part of the difficulty. The reality is there are a lot of nannies out there with more experience who speak great English and drive, who are charging $15/hr for one child, so to make more, you need to bring more to the table. As some PPs suggested, do you speak a foreign language well enough to each the kids? Can you cook? CPR/first aid certified? There are definitely families out there who will pay more (it looks like some may be posting on this site) but if you are having trouble finding them, I think that is why.

I'd also suggest being cautious with the typical day you outlined - what you propose is the bare minimum I'd expect from a nanny and suggesting a bunch of lessons and classes, and other activities that cost money, will put parents off because those get expensive and don't require much work from the nanny. It would be much more impressive to come in suggesting concrete age appropriate activities to do with the kids at home and talk about why those are developmentally appropriate for kids at the age of your potential charges. That is something families would pay more for.

I'd also think a little about what you want long term. Our current nanny wanted a family to be with for a long time - it was what she had before us as well. As a result, she was happy to start at $15/hr for one kid (and she did have a better paying offer that would have clearly been shorter term) but after several years (and another child on our part) makes much more now. Alternatively, you could look for families that already have multiple kids or a share, both of which should be better paying from the outset (but often are shorter term).

Finally, I'd enlist your current MB to post on neighborhood list serves for you (and provide a pre-meeting reference/conduct a screening for you). We found our best candidates that way and after a while, we were only willing to interview candidates who met that criteria. If she is willing to help (and hopefully she is - I wouldn't hesitate to do this for our current nanny), it might get you in front of more prospective families and save you a lot of time and effort.

PP here - also do not mention the TV! No TV is again the bare minimum I would expect from a nanny candidate. Any nanny that came in talking about TV (even to say she wouldn't allow it) would set off red flags for me.

Anonymous wrote:OP - three years with one family is not really a lot of experience, which may be part of the difficulty. The reality is there are a lot of nannies out there with more experience who speak great English and drive, who are charging $15/hr for one child, so to make more, you need to bring more to the table. As some PPs suggested, do you speak a foreign language well enough to each the kids? Can you cook? CPR/first aid certified? There are definitely families out there who will pay more (it looks like some may be posting on this site) but if you are having trouble finding them, I think that is why.

I'd also suggest being cautious with the typical day you outlined - what you propose is the bare minimum I'd expect from a nanny and suggesting a bunch of lessons and classes, and other activities that cost money, will put parents off because those get expensive and don't require much work from the nanny. It would be much more impressive to come in suggesting concrete age appropriate activities to do with the kids at home and talk about why those are developmentally appropriate for kids at the age of your potential charges. That is something families would pay more for.

I'd also think a little about what you want long term. Our current nanny wanted a family to be with for a long time - it was what she had before us as well. As a result, she was happy to start at $15/hr for one kid (and she did have a better paying offer that would have clearly been shorter term) but after several years (and another child on our part) makes much more now. Alternatively, you could look for families that already have multiple kids or a share, both of which should be better paying from the outset (but often are shorter term).

Finally, I'd enlist your current MB to post on neighborhood list serves for you (and provide a pre-meeting reference/conduct a screening for you). We found our best candidates that way and after a while, we were only willing to interview candidates who met that criteria. If she is willing to help (and hopefully she is - I wouldn't hesitate to do this for our current nanny), it might get you in front of more prospective families and save you a lot of time and effort.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, OP, you don't have very good qualifications and you have a short job history. You won't be able to make $20/hr for one kid in DC. Maybe $17/hr, but that's about it.