Nanny pay

They chose their career? You could say that about anything though. You chose to have kids and still work. You choose a Nanny and not a nursery. Etc

However wages aren't what they used to be for anyone. Tom Kerridge was on today about the hospitality industry. Life just is more expensive to even live these days sadly.

You nearly got me with this!

Cheeky!

You can blame agencies for this. It's absolutely infuriating!

I don’t think anyone should get angry. Just don’t take the job.

I do suggest you rethink your logic though. Childcare is not some homogeneous role. If a nanny is required to have a degree in early childhood education and to speak 3 languages and able to work inconvenient hours and be personable and presentable and organise the children’s very complex calendars then they will command more than a childminder.

So if in your employment sector you went looking for a new job and they offered you 10-15% than the average rate for the role would you take it? Doesn't matter if you are working for a big company or a couple why would anyone be expected to sell themselves short?

I'm amazed at how much nannies earn compared with nursery workers or childminders. They're basically doing the same job but with fewer kids and more freedom. It's not a career, no progression or CPD. Just babysitting, tidying up and preparing meals.

Your arguments are silly.

YABU not to grasp basic economics.

The thing that I find frustrating with Nanny negotiation (and I’ve had this several times) is where they insist on a pay rate based on what they receive net. So they say “I have to receive £17.50 per hour net”. In no other circumstance have I ever come across an employee setting their pay by what they want to receive net.

I had an awkward and expensive start once when it was only at the last minute when the nanny turned around and said that they meant £17.50 after their own salary sacrifice pension contribution (meaning I had to increase the gross pay yet again to cover paying for her employers and employee pension contributions. And then later there was further misunderstanding because on agreeing the gross pay based upon her expected net pay she had not factored in that her personal allowance was entirely used up by her other part time position (which was entirely her own business and outside of my scope). And so then I felt I had to pay even more and then give her a crash course in tax codes. And this was a professional nanny who had been in the working world for at least 30 years. Agh.

You just don't want to pay them properly. Got it.

You know you are coming across as a total twat in this thread.. right?

We’ve had nannies over the years. It’s not about what’s fair, nor what you can or can’t afford. It comes down to demand. If you have a nanny with good experience in a high demand area then she will be highly sought after and expect to be compensated well.

I had to increase our employees salary by 25% in her last year with us. For no other reason than that was her worth and she was willing to move to a new family who was willing to compensate her at market rate.

Oh, and I’ve never used ‘horrible language’ about jobs posted with low pay. I have calmly and rationally called public ones out on Facebook groups for Nannies. There’s a lot of younger Nannies or ones that just become desperate to line up their next employment (I get it, I’m on the emergency temp nanny circuit currently and it’s not something I want to do long term) that they might just get taken advantage of. Same as with parents who want to pay ‘under the table’. Lots more of that about these days and leaves potential Nannies open to all sorts of exploitation.

You dont really sound like you do.

Of all the things to get annoyed about 🙄

Everyone is trying to earn as much as possible, nothing wrong with negotiating.

Sounds like you could learn something from said nannies re your own emplyoment/ wages

So presumably the same applies to all other childcare as it’s coming from the funds of a mother and father. Why are you just singling out nannies?

I'm a nanny.

I agree that nannies should 'own it' in the sense that they should understand that nanny jobs, like all jobs, are reliant on market forces.

I'm know a lot of nannies and am a member of various groups and I can't say I'm aware of a large number of nannies using 'horrible language' to describe employers offering fair terms and conditions. If the groups you are part of experience this problem, I'd leave the group!

If you are offering significantly lower wages/poorer erms and conditions than other employers in your area then you may get short shrift from the nannies.

My advice would be to advertise the job clearly with wages included, that way any nanny who thinks you're taking the piss can just avoid it.

I cant afford to pay a nanny, so I don't have one. I wouldn't expect a nanny to work for a pittance just to fit my budget.

Having a nanny is a huge privilige and for the truly rich. You can take a living in aupair

Can you? It doesn’t come across that you do.

So why are you moaning about the cost?

I’m a nanny. I’m very good at what I do with 15 tears of experience. I will not even enter into a discussion with an employer who thinks they can nickel and dime me on what I’m worth. As it is, the £20-23 gross an hour I ask for is not a fortune, I’m certainly not left with much spare change once all my financial commitments have been met. Although I’m unable to take in a full time role now because I have my own child who I’m with when not at work.

Having a nanny is a luxury, and it is sadly true that many families are no longer able to afford it. The job market certainly is not what it was. However that does not mean that we should not be vocal about being paid a good rate to reflect what is essentially a tailored in-home childcare service. Of course that’s not going to come cheap.

The Nannies get so angry.

You sound pretty angry yourself.

Not sure what the back story is here. Nannies are like any other service providers, they offer their services for the money they can get. There's nothing wrong with either side negotiating as they see fit. Weird the way you are talking about how nannies should accept negotiation, when you seem to mean they should accept your offer. If they can do better elsewhere, they will, if not, they'll take your offer. I've never had any issues at all, but then we paid our nanny nearly 40k (to them gross) about 10 years ago for 60 hours a week. If I i only had 20 hours to offer, they'd probably not accept 15k, which I would understand.

If you're referring to the old arrangements around providing net pay, then I'd agree, that was a bit of an odd situation and led to misunderstanding with one candidate who didn't seem to understand that when we operate payroll that means we're paying HMRC the tax plus the employer NI. She made very strange statements about tax breaks for us!

It sounds to me that you simply cannot afford a nanny. Perhaps you or your husband should have chosen a more lucrative career path.