What is the right price per hour to pay a nanny in London

It's a huge hassle for you BoffinMum, you'd think in this current climate it would have been in her best interest to get the contract signed asap to secure the job! I know I wanted everything sorted as soon as possible for my own protection! Once I had the contract signed I could relax and enjoy my month off. She's not acted very professionally at all to mess you around like this. Maybe she is double dipping and got a better offer but was too much of a chicken to be honest with everyone about it?

I know you're right, so I have just asked the agency to start sending me replacement candidates before we go away for our hols. Even though she is saying she sent it to them on 12 July, this was still very late, and she didn't follow their advised procedure either by starting to try to negotiate extra concessions via them as a third party, instead of speaking directly to us. I am feeling very messed about by all this. She tells us she really really wants the job (I asked her outright), but then faffs about like this!

Sounds very unprofessional. Like Nick said, contract sorting/signing shouldn't take more than a week as everything important should have been agreed prior to accepting the job! The contract should just put in black and white everything that has been agreed. With my new job I had 2 phone interviews of an hour or so each, one afternoon of face to face interview 3 days later where they offered me the job on the spot. We then agreed on everything within a day or two and had contracts signed and sealed within a week, before they'd even had the baby! To take a month is not on. If she had doubts or concerns she should have either not accepted the position or addressed them very early on in the process IMO.

Funny you should ask. She did the trial day in May and we offered her the job there and then.

She took a week to respond officially via the agency and then agree. The agency then sent me their sample contract and a bill for £1000. We were told we had two weeks to cough up or we would have no guarantee for the nanny (i.e. if she left within a month we wouldn't be able to have another without an agency fee being paid). We paid up, sent the contract onto her, just tweaked very slightly as the agency suggested, and she was supposed to check it over and send it back to us for us to forward onto the agency for two final copies to be printed out for signature. Instead she sent it direct to the agency a month or so after we sent it to her, and started quibbling about her holidays (6 weeks including bh, but she wanted 6 weeks plus bh, which she hasn't got) and her babysitting (one night a week, Mon-Thurs only). The agency said this quibbling was because her dad has raised some questions (she is 29!) We have chased this about 3-4 times with the agency and 3-4 times with her, and she says she sent the contract to the agency on 12 July. We spoke to her and the agency last week, and said if she hadn't signed on the dotted line by close of play on Friday then we would start looking for someone else. She said she would send the contract to us. No sign of it yet.

I am not sure whether to cut my losses here. She's very nice and all that but I think this is ridiculous. I am worried it says something about her professionalism. What do you nannies think?

BoffinMum - you found your nanny in June didn't you? Has she signed the contract yet... or are you still waiting for it? I would say usually contracts are signed within a couple of days... you send the contract, the nanny reads it, responds with some things they need clarification on or would like changed, you consider any changes and revise the contract and it gets signed. Takes a week max in my view.

Blondes, she has taken five flipping weeks just to sign the contract. I am not well pleased. Is this normal?????

DP is a teacher and works way way more than 50 hours/week during term time, eating late into nearly every evening and some weekends, always taken to cover staff shortages during the few hours supposed prep. time at school and barely a lunch hour.

I often nanny long hours but once i'm home thats it and i earn more than DP- just an illustration of our unjust public/private economic split. moan rant off topic.

There are still plenty of positions/people willing to pay good money for good nannies. If you can afford this nanny and are happy with her you are not being taken for a ride at that £.

"Big thanks to Blondes who held my hand through all this, by the way. (And Blondes, you are sooooo worth it!!!)"

aww - blondes is - glad i was helpful and all is going well with your new nanny

That's a good point, Penth. The pensions are really valuable, particularly in the present climate.

It does initially sound a lot, if you compare it to a teacher or a nurse. But, on reflection, both teachers and nurses receive (I believe) decent pension packages, and a nanny does not. Therefore, there are hidden extras which make their jobs "worth" more.

Lynette and Limonchick, the PWC report said it averaged 50 hours a week over the whole year, i.e. ridiculously long hours in term time and obviously lighter in the holidays when teachers don't have to be in school. In the aftermath of the report, the Government did try to do something about this by introducing ring-fenced planning and preparation time, but I think some teachers still have to work extremely hard for their money.

2hotcrossbuns, a £7k pay rise?????!!!! What planet is she on?????? I have just hired a nanny and while agencies started off telling me they were all getting £10 net an hour or more (in the main virtually unqualified girls with one or two years' experience), once I dug my heels in and told them I wanted someone experienced and qualified, they sent much better candidates to me and we ended up paying a lot less than that for a f/t post. Big thanks to Blondes who held my hand through all this, by the way. (And Blondes, you are sooooo worth it!!!)

That is a huge payrise she's after!

I was interested to see this thread as our nanny has just asked for a rise to £10 per hour (we currently pay just over £8). We have offered to meet her in the middle at £9 plus a few more hours a week (she is currently off on Fridays) for various reasons. This has been turned down - she wanted 20% more money for the same work/hours. She is a very experienced nanny and the kids love her, however we just culdn't afford it (am on mat leave, DH just got a new job at 20% less after 6 months redundancy). So now she is looking for another job - it (selfishly!) makes me feel a litle better to hear it's an employers' market. Fingers crossed the grass won't be greener...

BoffinMum - Teachers work 50 hours a week for how many weeks of the year?

Also - if she has another 2 day job along side yours, are you splitting the tax code 3/5 - 2/5, or are you getting her full tax code and she will pay tax on all her wage from the 2 day job?

Technically it's not a nanny share - she is a nanny with 2 jobs.

A nanny share is when you look after the children from more than 1 family at the same time.

im worth that boffin mum

lishylooloo - sounds about average, but esp as you want someone who can speak french and tbh not that many nannys can

apart from je voudrais un biere svp?

Averaged over the year?

Teachers work over 50 hours a week on average according to a PWC report.

Can you afford £10 net an hour? If not you could try negotiating her down to £9 net, but French nannies are in demand and she might find someone else who will pay what she wants.

Sorry, ignore the 3 days per hour bit in my second sentence which makes ZERO sense. I meant if she won't take a big cut to her hourly rate then you should work out what her full wage would be for 3 days at £10 net per hour, and see if there is a handy amount it rounds down to that you could then agree with her.

Also, do you need her for the full 10 hours (which is a typical nanny day) - we worked out we could stagger our commutes so we have her for 9.5 hours so we saved money both by negotiating down on hourly rate and by cutting back the hours slightly.

"Nannies generally work a 50 hour week"

You were comparing to a teacher though, who I assume works a 40 hour week? Not really a fair comparison - of course you should get paid more for working more.

Ah, just noticed she is 3 days a week, like ours. I think then that £10 net is not unrealistic given you want a French speaker, but you may have some room for negotiation. Even if she won't drop to £9 net per hour, work out what it is for her full 3 days per hour and tehn see if you can round down.