Nanny Share - Salary Query

[Billy]

Hello

I currently have a very good nanny who is employed on the basis of a nanny share with another family. She looks after 2 children, both 15 months. She has recently sought to increase her salary. She currently gets ?10.50 p/h net. I do not want to increase the rate if I can help it, but I also do not want to have a row with our nanny. If you do a nanny share could you tell me what you pay your nanny and what level of salary you think is reasonable.

Many thanks

L

[ljs]

Does your nanny work full time for both of you ? How long has she been with you ??

I always received a raise every year, without fail .

[zeban]

ljs you've already said in a previous post that you worked as a nanny for two stockbrokers. I don't think your experience will always be in line with all families who use nannies. You could be in danger of making families feel guilty if they can't match your experience. I think the OP would prefer replies from families who hire nannies in this thread, not nannies themselves.

[Fuschia]

I think usually a cost of living increase would be fair, but many employees vare subject to pay freezes at present

[alieh]

Hopefully others who actually have nanny share arrangements will chime in, but that does seem a bit low based on the research I did on nanny shares a couple of years ago. From my understanding at the time, a sole charge nanny would be expecting ?8-10 net and a nanny share would be up to 50% more. Things may have changed now, though, as the economic situation wasn't quite as bad when I was looking into it!

Although it seems odd to accept a post and then expect a big increase. I would think it would be reasonable to build in a small annual increase, but if you negotiated a contract based on ?10.50/hour net and nothing has changed in terms of responsibilities then I can see why you wouldn't want to pay much more.

[anna_r]

Nannies in east Dulwich currently earn between ?8-10 per hour before tax (?9 average) for sole charge and ?2 more per hour (ie ?5.50 per hour per family average). That's what we pay our nanny and we have some full charge days and some shared days. Simplychildcare.com are really good for these sort of questions - you can phone them and get free advice on current rates. We increased our nannies salary from ?9 ph to ?9.50 after she had been with us for a year (and been brilliant) and from ?5.50 ph on shared days to ?6 ph. Hope this helps.

[emc]

Billy - when I was in a nanny share (we each had one child) we paid the nanny ?11 net per hour (which worked out to about ?14 when tax and NI added) How long has she been with you? I think she hasn't been with you that long it's a bit off to be asking for a pay increase....also I, probably along with many others haven't had a pay rise for about three years!

[ljs]

WOW... Zeban, thanks for that. I have also worked for many other families around the area. I was only trying to help out Billy by asking a few questions.

Thanks for your rather abrupt response.

[ljs]

Sorry to Billy for the above comment on your thread.

[zeban]

ljs it wasn't an attack on you. I just really think it's a question that needs to be answered by other parents, given the many issues and feelings that parents already have to deal with when it comes to childcare- it's a question that I think requires understanding from the viewpoint of the parents. And I do think that by saying a yearly payrise was a given for you it might unfairly worry parents who cannot afford to do this. Many people don't get yearly pay rises.

[womanofdulwich]

i think the thing to be careful about are costs.whilst i and many others have had pay cuts in thepast few years, things like my ticket to work has gone up by over 10%, vat and petrol etc also gone up-and I think you need to keep up with these costs if you can.

[chantelle]

we have just given our much-loved share nanny a small raise above the ?10 net ph she was making. It works out to about 5%, which is more than the measly pay rise I waited 2.5 years to get.

Our nanny claims nanny shares are going for ?14 ph in ED but I have never heard a figure that high. Maybe ?12 ph at the upper end.

[Smiler]

The nannytax website has some stats on salaries.

[VjB]

Hi billy, our nanny also wanted a pay rise, unfortunatley we weren't in a position to give her one at her annual review- so decided on giving her a bonus instead. We paid this as cash to her, so i think it probably ended up being more to her than any payrise we could have given. She seemed very happy with that and the promise we would review her salary once we were in a better position.

Hope that helps?

[new mother]

From friends' experiences, this is a bit too much. Does she also expect lunch and coffees out to be paid for, classes that she takes the children to to be paid for etc? It all adds up and when they start expecting their entire day's expenses to be covered, I start to think they are taking the mickey.

(My particular bugbear is classes when you are already paying THEM to entertain the children!)

[chantelle]

new mother, I think it's only fair to cover the cost of playgroups if the parents want them to attend. I do get peeved by our nanny running through a ?20 weekly kitty though, for only three days and when they only ever go to low-cost activities, like 1-pound playgroups. It's a sort of pay rise by stealth.

[amydown]

I think it's only fair that classes are paid for. Different opinions but I'm not paying our nanny to "entertain" them but to provide a loving caring environment. It's good for the little ones to do classes, etc and I always think Happy Nanny = Happy Baby (much like Happy Mummy = Happy Baby).

Chantelle, ?20 kitty per week for 3 days sounds very high though. We have a ?10/week kitty for two toddlers (14m + 15m) 4 days a week and even that doesn't get spent every week.

[chantelle]

our fault for agreeing to always keep the kitty topped up to ?20. So every week one family puts in ?20, theoretically taking out the change from the week before, but there never is any! We asked for receipts at one point but it didn't happen. Petrol comes out of it but a few miles travel can't be that much!!

good childcare is gold though...

[new mother]

Chantelle, unbelievable. Did you agree at the start that she could have 20 pounds regardless of what she spent? If not, she is a straightforward thief and technically if the other family doesn't know, you are an accomplice. Technically as it would never come to court, of course. For me trust is paramount and if you can't trust them with money, what next? Your purse? Clothes? Jewellery? I am afraid it does happen.

[JacquiNanny]

Hi,

There is a really good website that may be of use to you called simplychildcare. It has guidelines on Nanny salary. It recommends that average Nanny salary is ?8-?10 per hour and for a Nanny share based on two families sharing one nanny ?11 per hour with both families paying ?5.50 per hour each. I hope this helps. The simplychildcare website is definitely worth looking at.

[lghlady]

I run simplychildcare.com and have recently updated the information on the site about average salaries. The average rate for a nanny doing a nannyshare in Dulwich is ?11 net per hour with ?12 at the upper end. And a nanny just working for one family is in the ?9 to ?10 net per hour rate with ?9 being the minimum (you would not get a proper nanny for ?8 net per hour now) and ?9.50 being pretty average.

Most parents expect to have receipts for any petty cash expenditure of ?5 or over and many parents expect receipts for anything over ?2. Do not be weak willed. Insist on it. As for petrol money, normally a fixed weekly sum is agreed which should cover the cost of petrol during working hours but also is a gesture towards the wear and tear, insurance and convenience if a parent wants the nanny to use her own car during working hours. 40p a mile is common.

If a parent is going to increase their nanny's salary, then it is the ideal time to tighten up on any procedures that have become a bit sloppy or are maybe being ignored completely. It is less threatening being able to say that as well as sorting out the salary rise, it is a good opportunity to review how everything is running. And that you would like to tighten up on some of the general day to day procedures which have become a bit 'loose' (e.g. petty cash or laundry or tidying up of toys etc at the end of the day, or how much TV is watched, or sort of food cooked, or whatever it is that is becoming a niggle!). And parents should make sure that they let their nanny talk if she wants to about anything that is becoming a niggle for her - perhaps she is finding that the parents are doing - or not doing - something which they never did earlier and which is now in danger of becoming an issue between them if it isn't nipped in the bud (e.g. regularly coming home late or assumptions made about availability for babysitting or undermining the strategies agreed for sleep or eating problems or being paid late etc.)

[chantelle]

thanks for those tips, lghlady.

[LittleBigOne]

If you consider that a nanny can make ?9-10phr with one family why would the nanny work for ?10.50phr for 2 families? I think payrise if you can, even as little as ?5 a week will be appreciated, maybe offensive to some???? Bonuses are a great way of showing your happy with your nanny!

[Billy]

Hi all

Thanks for the above, its really useful. We are still negotiating!

[new mother]

LBO, because a 5% to 16% increase is quite a bit? all just for a bit of extra admin. And I imagine it makes it more fun to vary the routine of the week a bit.

In general, though, the pathetically servile attitude that people have towards their nannies astonishes me. Most people act like they are grateful to have their nanny, which is quite ridiculous when you consider these girls have few qualifications in many cases and have an extremely good package that they could never achieve in eg a nursery or in the sort of alternative job that they had as an option. Parents, rebel! Treat good nannies well and with respect, as you would any good employee, but not as part of the family. Get decent service from all staff, just as you give your employer and for god's sake, have some backbone and self-respect...