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Original poster

How much to pay babysitter?

39 replies

chaosisawayoflife · 02/05/2010 14:50

One of the girls from DD's nursery is babysitting for me tomorrow as I have to go to work despite it being a bank holiday. I work 12 hour shifts so she'll be looking after DD from 7.45am to about 8.15pm. I asked her how much she wanted to charge and she said she'd let me decide how much I want to pay her! Argh! What would you charge for a 12.5 hour day? It's in my home and dd is nearly 2.

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smallishsheep · 02/05/2010 16:49

Calm down Missus. Nothing exploitative about it. As I said, she doesn't have to do it, and she has asked the Op to name her price. I would be chuffed to get £50 for a day of looking after a 2 year old

Missus84 · 02/05/2010 16:46

Less than minimum wage for a 12 hour shift on a bank holiday is exploitative imo. She is an experienced and possibly qualified childcarer, doing sole charge - the work is harder and more responsibility than the work in a nursery so she should be paid more!

£5 an hour may be fine for evening babysitting after the children are in bed, but looking after a toddler all day is a different kettle of fish.

luciemule · 02/05/2010 16:43

If she's only young (under 20), I think she'll be more than happy with a fiver an hour. It's babysitting - she's not a nanny so I would assume she's not tidying bedrooms, washing and ironing DDs clothes etc. Just playing, feeding and entertaining her. As a babysitter, i would only be expecting to care directly for the child, not do nanny duties. I'm a trained doula and only charge £10 an hour so think a fiver is fine but to babysit, I would only charge a fiver.

smallishsheep · 02/05/2010 16:41

Noone's making her do it though. And she's said to name your price. I am assuming from that that she is either young, or is just doing you a favour. Fwiw, I would keep the price low, and then be able to use her more often if I could

Laquitar · 02/05/2010 16:41

'babysitting rates' usually mean evening time, when children are in bed.

In your case it should be 'nannying rates'.

FantasticMissFox · 02/05/2010 16:40

£50 for a 12hour shift on a bank holiday? Thats just over £4 an hour. If you want her to still like you I'd give her at least £80!!

smallishsheep · 02/05/2010 16:33

Exactly. It's a cash in hand job. Therefore I would have no problem paying less than minimum wage.

luciemule · 02/05/2010 16:28

Doubt she'll be declaring it.
I would pay our babysitter £5/hr. Where we just moved from, our sitter looked delighted when I said I would pay her that as her advert had said £3.50!
So that would be 62.50 for 12.5 hrs.

smallishsheep · 02/05/2010 16:20

Will she be declaring it as income?
I didn't realise I had to pay my babysitter minimum wage. How ridiculous

agedknees · 02/05/2010 16:19

But £50 not minimal wage so is it legal?

smallishsheep · 02/05/2010 16:17

How old is she?
Tbh, I think £50 is more than acceptable but maybe I am a skinflint

nbee84 · 02/05/2010 16:16

I think you could get away with £80 if £100 is over your budget. That is £6.40 per hour which is probably as much as she gets paid at the nursery (though it is a bank hol - so maybe £100 is better??)

agedknees · 02/05/2010 16:05

This is a hard one. Think missus is about right. I bet it is not worth you going out to work.

Missus84 · 02/05/2010 15:11

I'd expect at least £100 for that.

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