Should I pay?

Did you actually properly offer her the job at interview? This seems quite strange to me as normally there is a trial day or couple of days to see if job suits everyone gets on etc.

I have been a nanny for 15 years and to be honest it depends what you said in interview if she was waiting for months and turned down lots of work stopped interviewing and you turned around and changed start date then yes I think you should have paid her something.

To me unless you have officially been offered a job and in contract talks then I would expect nothing and I think she is a bit cheeky to be asking.

As others said you made a verbal offer with a start date

You can’t then change it for 6w later to suit you

She would have had bills etc to pay

She only wants 2w pay. I would pay and be grateful that’s all she wants

I would want the full 6

The way you have treated her is not nice and tbh not a great way to start a new position

Many parents with disabled children use a nanny. It is sometimes the only way to make it work if the child needs one-to-one or two-to-one care.

You need actual legal advice on this not the advice of mumsnet and the moral army.

Probationary period within contract is acceptable.

You can't offer her a start date then decide you would like her to start weeks later and not pay her in the meantime. I employed a nanny and when my maternity leave ended I was injured and unable to return to work straight away, I still had to pay my nanny from the start date we'd agreed, even though I didn't go back to work for another 14 weeks. I imagine she is looking at you trying to wriggle out of paying her the time you've agreed with her and thinking 'if this is how the job starts, it could be a horror of a position,' and wondering how to get out of it. In the meantime, she has made herself available for you and you don't want her then. This is not her fault, and her bills will not pay themselves. Act like a grown up and pay her.

The decent thing, and ethical thing, to do would be to pay her.

It is irrelevant what I would or wouldn't do. I am fed up of the assumption that because people use a nanny that they are rich. It isn't the case.
Where I am Nannies don't earn that much as they don't have a big market up here (Northern town). My nanny cost me £1000 per month for 26 hours a week.

@ThisMustBeMyDream I expect you'd pay your nanny then from when you'd given a start date as you'd realise that not everyone has enough money to get by without a wage.

Maybe not everyone who has a nanny is rich (which is why I said a suspect) but more often than not. We looked at getting a full time nanny as an option when I returned after maternity leave and it was more than my full time wage- which is above National average and more expensive than a childminder or nursery.

As a minimum you should pay her the notice period, which I think is usually 2 weeks during the probationary period.

If you want to keep her and have a good relationship I'd apologise and pay her full wages for the 6 weeks. If you don't need childcare in this time you could ask if she'd be happy with helping out around the house with other things instead.

If you want to keep her and aren't fussed about having a good relationship (heaven knows why) then offer to pay a percentage of her wages for the 6 weeks to tide her over.

I mean I was offered a job by a large company. Given a start date by said company. Turned up to their office and was told I actually started almost a month later. It was shit. I don't know the legal stance but morally you probably should give her something.

@NerrSnerr. Bit of an assumption to make. I had a Nanny because of shift work hours as a single parent. I was on a low wage topped up with tax credits.

I think you should pay her for the two weeks she's asking.

If you want to use her OP in the future surely you would pay her. She may need to the money and will planned her finances around that start date like most of us would.

I agree you should pay her from the start date.

I suspect if you're getting a nanny you have a decent wage coming in, sometimes people with money forget that others actually can't go a number of weeks without pay or she may not be able to pay her rent and bills.

I think you should pay. You gave her a start date.

Yes you should pay. It's not her fault you pushed it back and you entered Into a verbal agreement. You can't really have expected her to live off of nothing for 6 weeks so it was more convenient for you?

If you gave her the start date you pay her from the start date

I think the morally right thing to do would be to pay her. If you've offered her a job, she may have then turned down other work in the expectation that she would be starting work for you. To be then told that she would have a period of six weeks with no pay, could cause her financial stress - I know I would struggle in that situation.

Did you offer her the job on day of interview? And if so when did you say the expected start date was before changing it a week later?

Or did you interview her, then a week later offer her the job saying the start would be later than expected?

Well if you left one job for a new one starting Monday but when you turned up on Monday, they told you they didn't need you for a month, would you just go home and spend a month without pay? Or would you think they should pay you given you'd handed in your notice on your old job?

I've known employers to withdraw an offer of employment after everything is agreed. Happened to a friend of mine nothing he could do. Despite the fact he'd quit his job.

You've changed the start date, she's decided she no longer wants the job. Morally you should pay her, legally you don't have to.