How Much to Pay a Nanny for Twins
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New baby plus twins - how much to raise nanny's pay?
March 2006
A friend of mine who has three kids and not enough time on her hands to post this note will soon return to work full- time. She currently has a FT nanny who watches her 2.5 year old twin daughters. She is at home now caring for her 3 month old but will return to the office when this little one is 5 months old. She's wondering what is a fair and reasonable increase for her nanny as she takes on a third child to care for. She's interested in getting feedback on percentage increases in gross or net pay from people who have expanded from one to two children, two to three or more. Currently, she pays her nanny $13.50/hour net for the twins, pays for all of the nanny's taxes -- including income, plus health insurance. The nanny gets 10 federal holidays and 3 weeks off (though 2 have to be when this family takes their holiday). Thanks for your input -- she'll really appreciate it!
Typical take home pay rate for 2 kids is already $15-18/hour, and her nanny is getting only $13.50. Also, pay increases per child are usually $2/hour. Hope that helps
With our first child, we started the pay for our nanny at $9/hr and bumped her up to $10 about one year after she started with us. This was 5 years ago. In additional, we also paid for her taxes and gave her quarterly bonuses, which was anywhere from $300-$400. It really depends on what kind of bonuses my husband and I received from our jobs. If our bonuses were of a significant amount, we had no problem in passing more of that money to our nanny. We loved her greatly. Still do as a matter of fact.
Now, we have 2 children and have a different nanny. We had to let our first nanny go when I got laid off from my work, and decided to stay at home, with our first child for about 2 years. We pay our current nanny $15 an hour. We feel that this is a fair price since our oldest is in pre- school 4 days a week. So the bulk of the time is really taking care of our 2nd child. We also do not pay taxes or medical benefits. With $15/hr we can't afford to acquire those cost. We do however, pay for 2 weeks vacations, all major holidays and is accomodating to our nanny if she needs to do personal things. For instance, we still pay her for a full day's work, if she needs to go to the doctor's office in morning and comes to work after.
I hope this helps in deciding what is the appropriate rate increase for your nanny. Also on the 2003 Salary Survey (Berkley Parents Network site) I think you can find what the typical hourly rate is for 3 children. anon
Nanny salary for 3-year-old twins
Sept 2005
I have checked the BPN website and have not seen anything about Nanny salaries since the 2003 survey was conducted. Our Nanny has asked us for a raise and I want to be fair and understand the current market rate. We live in North Berekley and have 3 year old twins. We are currently paying our Nanny 16.50 plus taxes which comes to approx. $18.00 an hour. Could others tell me what they beleive the going rate is for a full or part time Nanny caring for 2 children in this area. If you could indicate whether the rate includes taxes or not that would be helpful. Thank you very much.
We have been in a nanny-share situation for a year and a half. We each pay $10 an hour flat, so the nanny makes $20 an hour with 2 kids. Or, we pay $15 an hour if she is just watching one child. We don't pay taxes for her, but we do pay on holidays, her vacation, and we still pay her if we are on vacation and our child is with us. Expensive, but glad we have been able to do this
I am not in exactly the same situation you are, but I thought I might share for comparison's sake. I have three kids who were 4mos, 3 and 6 when I hired my nanny 3 years ago. She had quite a bit of experience and so we paid her at the upper end of the going rate at the time $20/hr (we paid taxes above and beyond that using the Breedlove service, which has been helpful to us). Each time we get a cost of living raise, we increase her salary by a similar percentage. I think we pay her about $23/hr now. I also give Christmas bonuses and recognize each anniversary of hiring her in a special way. Many of my friends have hired nannies for less than I pay, but most of them have not stayed for more than a year. My first nanny was with us for 6 years, and my current nanny 3 years. When you find someone that works for your whole family, it is worth it to make them feel valued. When I was looking for a nanny and trying to decide what the going rate was, I found the website www.bay- area-sitters.com very helpful. Good luck! heidio
I pay my nannie $12 per hour for my son only. She has been working with me for 2 years and have given her a $1 raise yearly (she started at $10/hr) When we have another child I pay her $10 and the other mother pays her $10 as well, so she gets $20 per hour for 2 children. Her share rate has also gone up at a rate of $1 per year. I have chosen to give her a $1 per year raise because her job will end, or significantly decrease, when my son goes to preschool. Also, my son absolutely adores her and, frankly, I couldn't get through the week without her. I believe that great nannies deserve yearly raises. monica
We just interviewed about a half dozen people for a nanny position. Generally, for one kid, the rate was $12-$16. For two was $18-$20. If someone was more experienced with childcare, had additional qualifications like CPR or Trustline, or was willing to do additional things like laundry or light cleaning during nap time, the rate would be on the higher end of the range.
$18 per hour for two kids is quite generous. We live in Piedmont and have had four nannies over the past 6 years. We currently employ two of them part-time. We have two children and she is paid $15 per hour under the table. We sometimes share with another family and if there are more than 2 children she is paid $20 per hours total regardless of which children she is watching. I ahve talked to lots of friends about this subject and I can tell you that the going rate for two kids in the Oakland Hills/Piedmong is $14-$16 per hour (the ones on the high end are usually college students or recent college gradautes, english speaking, drive etc) Good luck don't get guilted in to paying more
I am also very curious about the going rate for nanny salaries. We are currently paying our 2 day a week nanny $18.00 an hour for our 2.5 year old twins. Would like to know if this is in the ball park (which it sounds it is according to anon' nanny). anon2
I think the going rate is $18/hour for two children -- but that is after taxes, so if your nanny's only taking home $16.50, I think you're under market. anon
Why not just give her the raise? I'd say $18/hour plus the additional 1-2 dollars/hour for taxes would be more sufficient. This would mean giving your nanny a raise of about $1.50 per hour. Going rate for 2 children is variable and dependent upon a number of factors. However, it seems that anywhere from $15-20 is considered reasonable by both professional nannies and parents. Since you've clearly been paying a fair wage, and gas prices (and subsequently many other items) have gone up, what is an extra $10 or so a day? Not much, when you are putting the lives of your child(ren) into this person's hands. A satisfied nanny is going to be more enthusiastic about her job, hands down. Smart mom
At $16.50/hr PLUS taxes, I think you are already paying through the nose for childcare. Recently, I needed to find a regular sitter to care for my two daughters (ages 5 and 3) one weeknight a week, from roughly 6 to 9. I was amazed--mmm, make that appalled--that sitters were asking as much as $16/hr. With no little effort, I found two lovely sitters who charge $10 and $11/hr, respectively. Granted, these are are not career nannies providing full time care for twins. But my lord--$17 an hour for two kids? I think that's amazing. Anon
My recent N Berkeley experience when looking for either a live- in nanny or daily babysitter for 20hrs/wk after school care for our 6 yr old daughter + occasional overnight help while both parents are on business travel: Live-in would get $150/week plus private furnished bedroom and bath, free utilities, internet access, share of laundry room, family phone,cable TV, and 3 dinners per week. Hourly rate for a daily babysitter of between $10 and $16/hr for 20 hours a week. Each overnight an extra $40 or $50. I look forward to input from others. Curious to know too
We gave our shared nanny (2 kids) a raise last year to $18/hour, which she had requested and several of her nanny friends were making. We also paid taxes. Don't know how you calculate your nanny's taxes, but we started with that base salary of $18/hr, then withheld taxes from her paycheck, reported to the state and feds, etc. Berkeley mom
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