to be stunned at the rates some nannies expect to be paid?

[headfairy]

Ok, I'm putting this here because if I put it in childcare I'll have hundreds of nannies hating me for evermore... However, recently I've had two nannies tell me they want in excess of £15ph net. Gross that up and that's what I earn, a graduate with 20 years experience working in a very high pressured environment with deadlines that have to be met every hour. Both of them have 10 years of nannying experience, but still....

I've had several more who want £12ph net, with less than 5 years nannying experience, and a few more who want £10ph net and yet they have almost no experience, and who've sent me cvs filled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

I'm going to get flamed I know... I've got the hard hat ready.

So they're wanting £20 an hour before tax is taken for 10 years experience?

Where do you live?

Need context

i think you are underpaid tbh

you want them to mind and care for your most precious 'possessions' - what could possibly be too much money for that

said half tongue in cheek

I think you are underpaid too.

No I agree, you are not BU. I had this same discussion with DH after the last thread.

It is purely market forces at work. In London, people can demand higher wages. To be fair a live in nanny can put in the hours and probably have a limited social life herself but I do not think it compares to other jobs. Afterall, people look after their own children the world over without a qualification to their name, so it ain't hard..

strange to make a remuneration request as net - it's almost always gross, surely..?

I'm in Surrey, so not the cheapest part of the world, I do understand.

p.s. i also think you are underpaid

I don't think they are asking too much, especially if they are having to look after more than one child.

If you want cheaper, put them in a nursery. Do you think your role as a Mother is worth less than £15 an hour? Granted, Mums have more descisions to make, but looking after someone else child involves quite a high level of responsibility wouldn't you say? Also, they should be qualified, so you are paying for that, as well as their experience.

hero, nannies/agencies tend to ask for net quotes - it's a bugbear - there's a thread about it somewhere, we were all chuntering about it.

I paid £9 net (also all tax paid, but wanting to compare - aargh, now I'm doing it too!) and felt i was overpaying - should have gone for £8.

TBH spelling mistakes really shouldn't be an issue IMO, unless the nanny is supposed to supervise homework. I shared an absolutely wonderful nanny for almost 4 years - she was a childcare genius - but her literacy was not great.

I would offer what you want to offer (and can afford) and hold out for that. There's a recession on.

Heroshrew, they keep bloody asking for net rates, we're grossing it up for contracts and told them we want to pay a gross rate, because it's only a part time job, (3 days) and if they work elsewhere it makes a big difference to us.

Boy do I know I'm not paid enough... large corporation (wink wink) salaries are all banded etc so not much chance of movement. Plus because i have to work fixed days I lose out on extra payments I could claim if I was more flexible.

Since being on MN I have discovered that many people pay their nannies and cleaners more than I earn per hour.

I'm a nursing sister with 15 years experience and think I'm in the wrong job!

curlymama, you can't even compare what a mother is worth to a paid professional. They're not even in the same league. Frankly a billion pounds an hour is not enough for a mother.

However, back in the real world.... £15 an hour net is £31k a year. For three days a week!!! 30 hours!!!! Seriously I do a 40 hour week, unsociable hours (don't finish until 10.30pm tonight) and I earn about that.

Its an enormous amount - works out about £46000 annual gross salary (based on 40 hr working week). most people on that kind of salary would be highly qualified and responsible for managing lots of other people.
Yes, yes, childcare is important. But let's get it in perspective. It does not require skills and personal qualities that are especially rare and it does not require qualifications that are difficult to obtain. Certainly I don't think a nanny should be getting comfortably more than a school teacher, for example.

The only thing I would say Sidge is that one of the reasons we eventually did pay £9 was that we knew the job was for a maximum of 1 year. Nannying can be pretty insecure in that sense.

Oh thank you elliott, I thought I was going mad thinking that!

Bit like nursing at the moment mackereltaitai - all these talks of NHS cuts and nursing job losses make me nervous!

Is that the going rate where you are? If there is plenty of nanny work available and not many nannies available, meaning people are prepared to pay that rate, then fair enough. It's all about the market isn't it?

If they are completely deluded about the state of the market, they will find it difficult to get employment at that rate, but if there are people willing to pay that rate because it's difficult to find nannies where you are, then they are right to ask it.

although I'm afraid i don't agree that you are underpaid, headfairy!
The IFS website is quite useful for this kind of thing.
an annual NET income of £31000 puts you in the top 10%, apparently.

flowery, most of the nannies I've seen have said there isn't much work out there at the moment. I don't know if that's true or not, but it would make sense that during times of economic hardship people would try and find cheaper ways of doing their childcare.

Oh yeah Elliott, I know if you go by the average salaries then I'm more than generously paid. Doesn't feel it at times when I've gone through a 12 hour shift without a meal break or even much opportunity to go to the loo.

However on the rates some of the nannies I've seen are asking for, they'd be paying top rate tax which puts them in the top 5%!

If that's the going rate then it's not unreasonable for them to expect it.

Use a childminder or a nursery if you can't afford it - or advertise the job at a rate you think is reasonable and see who applies.

there certainly seems to be a mismatch somewhere - markets are not always as efficient as the Adam Smith institute would have us believe!
I imagine nanny salaries are largely driven by the incomes of those who employ them. I don't know what an unemployed nanny would do so its hard to know what the real pressures are on them to accept lower wages.

Sidge - we have a qualified cardiac A&E nurse who comes and sits for us when my MiL or M are on hols (they do one day a week for us).

She is looking to change career as nannying is more lucrative/less stressful than specialist nurse

£15 net does sound really full-on. But people only charge what the market can stand...

I do agree on advertisign a rate you think is reasonable and seeing who is out there.