Is this Salary reasonable for Central London Nanny

sounds like she doesn't get the difference between gross and net? you are paying £540 npw for 40 hours? Thats over £18/hour gross!

We pay £550 npw for 55 hours per week (for 2 toddlers) and that is considered top end even for central london which is not the cheapest area! Our nanny also has over 20 years experience.

Think your nanny is unrealistic about what she can earn and what a family can afford to pay! You are paying her too much already!

I have a highly qualified experienced nanny. she is contracted to work a 63 hour week (includes one night's babysitting) although in practice she probably works slightly less. She has sole charge of 3 children of 5.7, 3 and 16 months. She is currently being paid 575 a week net and will be increased to 600 in March. We live in central London.

Your nanny is COMPLETELY out of order and would not last 5 minutes more in my house. There are excellent nannies out there who would be DELIGHTED to do the job.

The door slamming is outrageous. I once had a nanny who tried to change the terms of the contract. She really tried to play hardball and refused to do overnights if I didn't meet her pay increase. I stood my ground and said "no" (politely but firmly). She was in tears. She conceded and accepted life as it was. BUT... I never got over it. The relationship even today (long after her employment with us) was damaged beyond repair. She had many other good qualities, but this incident mad me so mad I have a hard time remember her good points.

Incidentally, even she did not slam a door and storm out.

And, yes, £600 nett is a VERY cushy job.

To affirm, we pay our highly qualified, highly experienced bilingual nanny 10 p h net in london. Very normal and well paid. Yes, we pay her gross but didn't want to confuse the issue.

TBH after the door-slamming I would be looking forward to the conversation on Monday when you tell her that she will be leaving after working her month's notice.

For London I do also think this is expensive (net) working for one family. And stroppy, messy nanny def. not worth it. Maybe she is not happy with the position and so would only consider doing the job for that price.

Having said this I was recently looking for a job in central-ish London and had specific ideal days, hours, ages, family, location etc. I expected to be quite limited in choice and was prepared to be out of work for while or compromise but £11 net seemed quite easily offered by many families and in W/SW there seemed plenty of £12 net jobs. There were also plenty of less well paid ones though so I can only assume different candidates (diff. experience/quals) would apply for those.

Some agencies said £10nph is most families would offer 'cos economy but in practice it really didn't seem that way.

I agree - that attitude would have me replacing her, regardless of money. FWIW we are in central London and our nanny is brilliant and we pay £8 per hour net. With a few perks, but nothing major (flight back home O/S annually and Christmas bonus are the main ones). And she is happy w that.

The door slamming would be the end of the road for me, irrespective of the money issues.

Your nanny slamming the door is utterly unacceptable, it's very rude and destroys all the confidence you have in her. You need to have a serious chat about the money and her behaviour. Good luck.

Tell her that you have been talking to other families who employ experienced nannies with great work ethic. And they all said that they are paying their nanny £10 net per hour (£13-14 gross). And I think we are paying you way too much, even then you are not happy. So therefore, we are giving you your month notice. Bye byeee

Oh I sooo would like to do this if I come across with greedy!!!

the agency always spoke to me in net terms
Yep, that supports my theory that it's the agencies who need to change.
nannies always stated their pay in net terms
However the nannies were provided by the agency, so the agency had told them that it would be net pay I suspect.

If agencies start doing all jobs as Gross, then with luck nannies will use Gross as well. Least that's my theory on things.
As you say, it's confusing for Employers, so makes sense I feel for everyone to use just Gross figures.

up to me to go to nannytax
You mean to use any one of many nanny payroll companies, many of whom provide the basic functions of payroll administrator. Somewhere on here we have a list of many of the companies.

Out of interest, did the payroll company you use tell you pros and cons of agreeing a Net wage?

Having been with you for 4 months she is likely to be out of probation, so yes the contract may well say it's a month notice on both sides to terminate the agreement. So if she won't accept the revised conditions then the option I feel would be to give her notice and find someone else. Not an ideal situation as she has got to know you and your son but children do adapt quite well to a new carer. Would also not be that good for her either, as then she's back job hunting again!

One can always rely on mumsnet!

By posting on here you get to chat with parents who employ nannies, nannies themselves plus other people who just happen to like commenting on your message thread. expect you will be visiting here for many years to come.

I do talk in the terms of 'I expect the gross of £10 net an hour'. I'm on net at the moment, have been in the same position for quite long and at that time it was always net contract, but looking for gross from now on. Hope this helps.

Artichokes>To the nannies on here who say you should talk about a gross wage, rather than net, do you talk about gross when you go to job interviews?

Yes I would. Just looked back at e-mail correspondence (early 2008) with agency who placed me in my current job and the job ad was Gross Annual but in the Job Spec document it gives both Net per day and Annual Gross. The agency now puts both Gross and typical net figure on their website.

they have said they have no idea what their gross wage should be as long as they are taking home £x an hour. Is that not normal?

Exactly what I am trying to establish on the other thread. Possibly better to take the Net v Gross aspect of this discussion over to that thread.

PS im a nanny :) im in north london and i get paid £12ph gross for share, and £10ph gross for one family. i have 3.5 years exp

wow! :O

Artichokes i always discuss in gross terms.... it doesnt help that many agencies advertise jobs in net terms.

To the nannies on here who say you should talk about a gross wage, rather than net, do you talk about gross when you go to job interviews? I ask because every nanny I have ever interviewed has stated their wage demand in terms of net. When I have tried to turn the conversation to gross they have said they have no idea what their gross wage should be as long as they are taking home £x an hour. Is that not normal?

When did you hire this nanny (this may be important if you do decide to end the contract)?

Ignore that one... silly me. Your son is 10 months old... so the nanny won't have worked for you for a long time

My husband and I live in central london and have hired a nanny to look after our ten month old son for 40 hrs a week at a rate of 540 (net).

Like others on here, I'd like to know some history.

When did you hire this nanny (this may be important if you do decide to end the contract)?

Why have you put the pay on here as Net? Whose idea was it to agree a Net wage, the nannies, yours and agency? (Interested to know this due to this thread about Net v Gross wages)

£540 net per week in 2010/11 tax year is £38,020 Gross per year. £42,155 cost to employer.

That is £18.25 Gross per hour which is high even for Central London.

will now need our nanny to work for 48 hrs per week. She asked to be paid more for this time increase, at which point we raised her salary to 600 (net)

If calculated hourly, keeping the Gross at £18.25 then Net Weekly for 48 hours increases to £638

So she may be seeing 600 net as not being so great. However her gross hourly rate is so high to start with, she's got to realise that at some point things become unaffordable for the employer.

So 600 net for 48 hours (£17 gross per hour 2010/11, £16.89 per hour, I think, from April 2011) is what you feel you can afford to pay. It's therefore up to her to decide if she wishes to accept that, or leave the employment.

returning to a 40 hr week as of May.

I think that takes it to £20.26 per hour Gross. Not totally sure, as not sure the tax calculator I'm using is doing the full calculation with the 2011/12 tax code yet.

So lets backtrack a bit... you were paying £18.25 gross per hour, for 40 hours. From May 2011 you will pay £20.26 gross per hour.

So that's an 11% rise.

She has come back to us very upset

Unless my figures are wrong (they might be, has anyone else concluded the same?) then it's an 11% rise come May and she's upset

I just can't believe I am going to have to fire her!

I don't think you can. What you are doing is changing the terms of the contract. She can accept the new terms or not. If she chooses not to do so, then you give notice under the terms of contract and she leaves (either immediately with pay in lieu of notice, or she works during the notice period).

That is perhaps what you meant by "have to fire her"

wow, she earns £13.50 nett gross yes a normal london wage but not nett

btw you should be talking gross not nett :)

so if a 5 day job she works 8hrs a day roughly

nannies are not meant to work 50/60 hrs a week, just depends on hours of job,though seems her days are short

you can find a better and cheaper nanny for about £480 nett for 48hrs, and one that doesnt run out black cab fares - give her a weekly/monthly kitty and once is gone thats it, bet she would take less cabs and walk/bus it more

why on earth did she buy a couch on credit for you?

Another thought-I've been job hunting and the average I came across is around £10 an hour net for central London. Occassionally it's £10.50 but that is the maximum I saw and that was with 3 children.

As a nanny I get overtime paid the same rate as my hourly rate- my only condition is that if it's more than 1.5 hours than I would prefer it as babysitting with a min of 3 hours guaranteed.

I would leap through fire for nanny wages like that! I've seen jobs working 24 hour cover, five days a week, not paying that amount!

Just out of interest, how did you come to pay so much, and why are you happy to pay way above average? Did an agency suggest it? Does the nanny have unusual skills? Does the nanny have unusual duties? Just curious.

I think she mixes up the situation with 'overtime pay'?
It is not unuasual to ask higher rate for overtime i.e. when occasionally you ask her to stay late. But this is not the case. If anything it is better for her to work 48hrs as the first poster said.

Your offer sounds reasonable and i think you should stick to your guns (otherwise she might twist your arm again in the future)

p.s. I'm looking for a new position as well ;)