AIBU to ask how much you pay your nanny?

[EastDulwichWife]

DH and I are struggling to work out how we can work around nursery hours, because I'll be going back 4 days per week and have an awful commute that means I'm out of the house for 10 hours a day.

That means I can't do nursery drop off and pick up, and neither can DH because he works odd hours in a different City.

That leaves full time nursery plus an au pair to do drop off and pick up, or a full time nanny. The latter feels expensive, but we live in London so, frankly, so is nursery. I'm wondering if a full time live in nanny would be a better option?

Does anyone have a live in nanny in London whose salary you're willing to share? We have enough space to house someone.

TIA

Average live in nanny salary in London is £350-500 per week. Depends what exactly you want from your nanny and how many children and how many hours.

Have you thought about looking for another family, perhaps a friend, to share a nanny with?
It halves the cost while still giving the same flexible care.
I've worked in a nanny share for many years and it had always worked out great for all x

Thanks for your replies. We wouldn't need evenings / weekends so it's only be 4 days (albeit long ones!) each week.

Will definitely look into a share but was totally unaware of cost. Haven't found it very easy to get a good guide to salaries online

£300-£500 feels okay, as I assume we'd be at the cheaper end of the scale given the reduced days (e.g. 3 days off per week).

I would do a job that was 4 days a week 12 hours a day for £400 per week. I would expect 50-55 hours would be £500 per week

Nannyuk thank you! Would you charge more for two children (i.e. Nanny share)?

Remember if you're getting a nanny you have to employ them, so you have to deal with tax codes, NI contributions etc which can muddy to waters RE cost (there are nanny PAYE companies which can sort all of this for you, usually for an annual fee)

Thanks Perpetual. I was aware (looked into it when we considered an au pair), but I appreciate you mentioning it. It's easy to deliberately forget the additional cost and admin!

I think it's more a case of what the two families decide. From my experience nanny shares are more of a hassle because you have two sets of parents who you are trying to keep happy. I would probably charge slightly more.

@Nanny I can understand see why that might become tricky! Makes sense, thanks very much.

No problem. Good luck. X

Thought I'd mention the company Koru kids that helps people find nanny shares, might be worth a look (no experience of using them but I spoke to the owner and she seemed nice!)

We have a live out nanny who works 10 hour+ days for £10.50 per hour net, plus tax and pension. She has use of my car whilst working but insurance wasn't much.

Manchester here so don't know if I'm going to be much help! We pay our Nanny £11ph gross (i.e. before tax etc). She works 25 hours a week but days vary- i.e. one week she might work 2 long days and half a day and other weeks we need her for 1/2 A day 5 days a week. Sometimes she will work overtime and we pay her £12ph for that. Weekends £13ph but very rare.

Babysitting here is rare but if we do we pay her normal rate until 10pm and £12ph for any hours over that. She has done the odd weekend looking after DD if we have gone away somewhere and been paid £14ph.

She has 6 weeks leave a year- we choose 3 and she chooses 3. Also has use of a car which cost an extra £200 a year to insure her (be careful about hiring someone young and inexperienced at driving as the insurance may be costly!). We give her a budget of £200 A month for activities and petrol but rarely all of it is used. We give her £500 at Christmas and on her birthday as a bonus.

She has travelled with us as well- we paid for an economy ticket (she could of upgraded with us if wanted but we asked her to make up the difference) and had her own room in the apartment we rented which we paid for. She paid for her own tickets when we went to attractions unless she was going with DD on her own.

We also spend about £10 A week on food for her while she is on duty.

That's true about the extra costs.
My families pay my national insurance and tax, employers national insurance, they also pay my yearly OFSTED registration fee and for a first aid course every three years, and will soon need to contribute to a pension scheme.
I get approx £8.50ph live out in the midlands and work 45hrs p/w.

Live in nannies quite often do 11hr30-12hr days 5 days a wk. So if you're looking at 10hr days 4 days a wk then I reckon you could offer 350 a wk. Most live ins are on 400-450 a wk for a 60hr wk. So a 40hr wk would be fine at 350imo

We've had a nanny for 5 years. I run my own payroll including the mandatory pension scheme now. It's not difficult. Don't let it put you off. Don't get drawn into the gross/net talk. Decide a good rate and pay that the same as any other employer. If I asked my employer to pay my tax he'd laugh until he fell off his chair.

Oh yes, I pay the ofsted and first aid training etc too. Particularly the ofsted registration gives the nanny v little benefit, but means I can pay her with some childcare vouchers.

This is so helpful! @Brassica you're right - the net / gross business was beginning to confuse me.
@KT Thanks for the tip on insurance costs. I hadn't factored in driving at all so that's really helpful.

Our preferred nursery, for 4 days care each week works out at £1050pcm. Which, considering the additional au pair costs for drop off pick up is likely to work out considerably more than a live in nanny. A couple of you seem to have really good experiences with long term nannies (coming on holiday, five years service etc), which I love the sound of. Not easy to find, I bet, but worth the search.

Thanks all, I really appreciate your help.

What is wrong with a childminder?

I split my early childcare between 2 days at a nursery and 3 at a childminder as this allowed me to do longer hours on the day he was with childminder.

It also meant that when he was old enough to go to school I already had a childminder to do before and after school care.

Also my childminder was so fab that even when he had chicken pox she had him because her older child had had them and she didn't mind her younger one getting them before she was school age.

If you get the right childminder it is a really good option. Mine also arranged cover when she was on holiday.

We've gone for a childminder for similar reasons in that both DW and myself have to leave for work earlier than nurseries open. Ours charges £6.50ph so may be worth looking into (am in the South East)

There's nothing wrong with a childminder - it just hadn't occurred to me that they'd do full day care. I tend to think of a childminder as providing wrap around care only rather than the whole day. I'll look into that too.

Thanks! There are far more affordable options that I had realised...

I use a childminder. Will drop my still sleeping DC off at at 6am to hers when DH is away. She gets them ready, fed, and then drops/picks up from school as required. I pay a flat fee of £50 for the day.