Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Original poster

Is this Salary reasonable for Central London Nanny

33 replies

BigGLittleG · 04/02/2011 14:24

Hello,

I need advice as a first-time mother hiring a nanny!

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).

I will be taking on a more demanding schedule until May and 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) and told her we would keep her salary this way even though I would be returning to a 40 hr week as of May.

She has come back to us very upset and has said that she expected to be paid £13.50 for any extra hours worked which would bring her salary up to £648 net per week.

Is this reasonable? From what I understand nannies are meant to work between 50-60 hrs per week and central london salaries range from 500-600 net per week. As she isn't even working these hours are we wrong to feel we are being taken advantage of?

She is English and has about 20 yrs of experience but at the rates she is charging, one would assume that she is Mary Poppins!
She is very good with our son but she is also very scatter-brained and messy so I often find myself cleaning up after her once she has left!

I also suspect that she is terrible with money as she has no savings and we had to lend her money for a deposit on her flat. She also seems to take a lot of black cabs everywhere (we avoid this as it's too costly) and she just bought a couch on credit from Habitat (most of our furniture is Ikea!).

The more I write this, the more I realise we may have to let her go. I suppose I just need confirmation that we are not being unreasonable in our salary offer to her.

Thank you for your replies.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
Lily311 · 04/02/2011 15:18

You overpay your nanny already. I don't get the rate you're paying for an hour doing a nannyshare in zone 2 (with level 4 qual and 8 years of experience I get £12.40 net an hour and do a 50hr week) and her demands are unreasonable.

And yes, I would expect her to leave the house immaculate, I am doing a nannyshare with 3 children but at the end of the day I make sure that the parents get a nice and tidy house back even if it means that I finish tidying up 5 min after my working hours finished.

If she is terrible with money-that's not your worries, you pay for the job what she does.

Original poster
BigGLittleG · 04/02/2011 15:18

Thank you all so so much for your replies....

I didn't mention this but when I described her being upset at our pay proposal she quite literally implied to me that we were exploiting her. So I just wanted to double-check that this was not the case.

Bertina -- the job is over a 5 day period

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

Thank you again

OP posts:
Mtorun · 04/02/2011 15:18

Employ me! I'm an experienced nanny and lovely too and clean! :))

For central London nannies, hourly rate is £10ph net. I think its £13ph gross. You are paying her way too much. Even then she is not happy...? I think your nanny is greedy!

Artichokes · 04/02/2011 14:56

We live in Central London and our nanny works 40 hours. In her first year with us she got £10 per hour net. After a year We gave her a rise of £20 per week. On the odd week that I work more than 40 hours she gets an extra £10 an hour.

My friends with nannies all seem to pay around £10 an hour each too. Some through use of a car into the mix. I have never heard of anyone paying as much as you do.

And I would expect a nanny to leave the house immaculate. Or at least in the state she found it. Tidying up after herself and the kids is an integral part of the job.

dinkystinky · 04/02/2011 14:50

She's being totally extraordinary! I think you're giving her a really good pay - and keeping her at the extra pay when you drop her down to 40 hours again so overall she's better off.

That said, if she's not happy with that - I'd find someone else. There are plenty of good nannies out there you could get to work for you for less money than she's demanding!

Novstar · 04/02/2011 14:45

That's a gross salary of £47500 or something, for 40 hours a week - a higher rate tax payer!

Recent nanny pay survey said that central London live outs in 2010 were earning £490 net per week, annual gross £34127 (and 98% of these work 40-60 hours/week), so I think you're not being unreasonble in finding another nanny. I'm sure you'd find lots of Mary Poppins who would love that salary.

Bertina · 04/02/2011 14:38

You lent her money for a flat deposit? I do hope you're taking the repayments out of her pay.

I think you are paying a lot for a not brilliant nanny, though with her experience I expect she's in a position to have the pick of the jobs and can ask a higher rate than a less experienced nanny.

However, whilst I think if you're asking 'only' 40 hours a week you (as in 'one', not you personally, to be clear) can expect to pay a slightly higher rate per hour, bringing her hours up to 48 a week makes the position full time (imo) and thus a lower hourly rate is reasonable.

Out of interest, is it over 4 or 5 days?

If she is expecting £13.50 net for the hours increase, how about you offer her that, on the understanding her hours and thus pay will decrease after May?

She sounds rather cheeky, tbh.

Original poster
BigGLittleG · 04/02/2011 14:26

Just to clarify...the £13.50 number came from her dividing £540 by 40 hrs per week.

Sorry for the long ramble!

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread