What is fair to pay a nanny when you go on holiday (without her)?

[Sanne Panne]

We're preparing the contract for our new nanny, using the nannytax standard contract. What percentage of a nanny's pay do you pay (or is fair to pay) a nanny when you go on holiday (without her)? We don't travel much but there may be a week here and a few days there when we won't need her. Is anything below 100% pay being cheap? I don't want to be cheap. I just want to know what's common practice :)

[Mellors]

I always agreed a certain number of days/weeks paid holiday a year. The deal was that we could chooser when to take half and she could choose when to take the other half, although in practise we agreed the big ones at the beginning of the year and all took them at the same time.

If I then took other odd days off that exceeded the agreed leave, I paid in full on the grounds its not their fault I have decided to have more time off, and they have their bills to pay.

[womanofdulwich]

ditto

[Sanne Panne]

Thanks Mellors, I like the idea of pre-agreeing to adapt to each other's holidays and paying the rest 100%. Is everyone else doing the same?

[anna_r]

Yes that's what we do too. In practice we've ended up taking quite a bit of extra holiday, and have always paid it 100% in full...as mellors says it's not their choosing. My nanny asked for an extra week off when we were around but had family to stay and for that we agreed that she would work those days off in extra time/babysitting.

[new mother]

Normal to pay becuase you are choosing to take that time. She is available to work and cannot find another job on an ad hoc absis. I do the same with my cleaner (ditto stooopid things like not leaving keys etc)

[Sanne Panne]

Great, 100% it is with some pre-agreed holiday dates.

[Mook]

You should always pay your nanny in full when you choose to take extra holidays, it is your choosing not your nanny's.

In my previous job I used offically get 5 weeks paid leave but in reality it was more like 8 therefore I didn't really feel I could complain if my employers asked me to come in for one or two mornings/afternoons to do any nursery duties that I may not get time to do during my normal working routine - sorting through clothes, toys, books that the children have outgrown or sewing labels into school uniforms etc.

[chantelle]

you have to pay 100%. If you are employing a nanny, you pay for 52 weeks a year, just like any employer. you have some freedom over how many holiday days you offer in total, since you can include bank holidays in the total (though many people don't, or only in part.)

For a full time employee, the legal minimum is 5.6 weeks (28 days), though this can include bank holidays.

see here for calculations on part time:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1079427399

[nylonmeals]

Are you sure that the legal minimum is 28 days for full time employee? That was more than I got at work when I was full-time.

[Dickensman]

Whatever you agree on,

one of our nanny's used to take the holiday money and work the time, so she was paid double wages.

Which was great for me, and pleasing for her.

[SparkyUK]

nylonmeals Wrote:

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> Are you sure that the legal minimum is 28 days for

> full time employee? That was more than I got at

> work when I was full-time.

I believe that is 4 weeks + 8 public holidays