To think nannies are overpaid?

[Fr0thandBubble]

Inspired by another thread about how much people earn. Plenty of nannies earning £50-£60k per year apparently and one on £120k!

Our nanny has just left us (youngest about to start reception, thank goodness) and we were paying her nearly £50k for 8:30am-6:30pm Mon-Fri. She would also pick up quite a bit of extra money babysitting evenings and weekends L. She didn’t even have to do anything from 9-12 each morning while my youngest was at nursery - and then only had my youngest to look after until school pick-up time when she had my eldest too. And nannies these days are very reluctant to help out with any cleaning or ironing so she really was doing nothing much at all in those hours.

She was lovely but has no qualifications and is in her early thirties.

It seems wrong to me that nannies are getting paid more than most teachers when they don’t need any qualifications. What do you think?!

Why choose a nanny what were the advantages of an untrained expensive care against nurseries or childminders who are all trained and cheaper?

Well, for us it was that DD would not have to fit to someone else's mould. She could continue to nap when she did when I was at home, in her own room with her own cot and routine. She could continue all the groups and activities I had been doing with her. She got 1-1 attention and care, based solely around her, her development and her needs. We put a lot of emphasis on attachment as parents and a nanny seemed to fit that best. Most of the research I had done suggested that day nurseries are stressful for babies so I wanted to avoid that until she was older. Also, if I need care overnight or during evenings/weekends, it's the same person. I think it's definitely been worth it for us.

[quote Fr0thandBubble]@upsidedownwavylegs Yes! Although honestly I’m not really pissed off as such, just musing on it!

We could afford to do it and we did it and it’s over now thank God because it really did cost us a very big chunk of our take-home salary. I’d do it again though and, although she wasn’t the most reliable or professional nanny, she loved our children and they love her and we would choose her again.

I just think it’s surprising London nannies get so much compared to other jobs like teachers, and I think it’s really hard on parents to afford childcare costs these days.[/quote]
They don't earn more than teachers. Your nanny is employed for 50 hours per week, 48 weeks of the year. Teachers are contracted (though they work rather more...) for far fewer hours and for much less of the year. It's like complaining that an all inclusive holiday for 2 weeks costs more than one week of self catering; of course the cost is different.

Teachers should be paid more for what they do, but you are not comparing like for like in the way you think you are.

I'm sure most people could not afford to pay a nanny £50k. One problem now is that you have to pay them a pension.

@Bugbabe1970 Poseidon 😆. That's great.

@roses2

YANBU - I think the going rate for a nanny is extortionate. This is why so many women are effectively forced to become SAHP because the cost of a nanny far outweighs what they earn.

Bollocks they command such a high salary because they look after our loved ones all day. Nurseries and childminders do the same and charge half at least. It’s supply and demand.

Nurseries and childminders look after children from multiple families

They are also, in many areas, woefully underpaid

@C8H10N4O2

That job description matched the nanny job I had, and all the nanny jobs of women I know who did nannying.

Ensuring a baby is 'meeting milestones' involves playing with and interacting with the baby, singing, reading, dancing, playing with shape sorters, stuffed animals, vehicles, blocks, balls, dolls, facilitating exploration of the environment while balancing the imperatives of freedom and safety, providing a varied and balanced diet, managing the many transitions in feeding from infancy to preschool age, providing a varied and balanced mix of fine and gross motor activities, outdoor and indoor play, gradually introducing crayons, chalk, paint, pencils, paper, blackboard, puzzles, exploring shapes, numbers, patterns, monitoring naptimes, managing transitions from several naps to two, to one, to none, potty training.

Through all of this, a nanny would also keep track of any difficulties the baby was experiencing - unusual speech, behaviour, physical problems or feeding issues. A nanny would also monitor the baby for signs of illness and administer any medicine needed for a chronic illness such as asthma, or treatment for something like eczema.

For a child of five, milestones include development of the ability to consider the impact of her behaviour on others, respect for her surroundings, her belongings and clothing, development of the ability to co-operate with age appropriate chores, facilitating a social life with little friends, refereeing disputes with friends or siblings and teaching and encouraging peaceful ways of resolving disputes, facilitating a social life (playdates, etc) and also formal extra curricular activities, ensuring the child has a good mix of activities involving fine and gross motor skills and social skills, developing emotional intelligence, providing interesting crafts and art ideas, imaginative play opportunities, reading to the child, singing with her, dancing. Plus keeping track of diet, encouraging a child to try new foods, monitoring any problems and managing any health issues, caring for the child when ill...

Milestones are not solely about phonics or times tables.

Nurseries and childminders do the same and charge half at least. It’s supply and demand.

Nursery workers come and go as a result of their poor pay. Continuity of relationships with caregivers loses out, to the children's detriment.

CMs don't charge each individual family a lot, but they make money because of volume.

We are grossly UNDERpaid.
I’ve been a nanny for coming up to a decade, in that time I’ve only had my pay risen by £4 per hour in 10 years. I’m experienced, I have more qualifications than I can count.
You trust me with your child, your house and your belongings. I raise your child in the best way I know how, I cook healthy meals for the whole family, I clean, I iron, I do homework, I drive your children around in my own car, I plan educational activities, I soothe them when they’re upset or overwhelmed, I teach them manners, I play with them.
Not only that but I support YOU. I work out solutions to problems with you, I’m your team mate and the one you go to when you need a professional opinion on something or support as a parent. When you have a newborn I send you to bed, bring you a cup a tea and then I take care of the other children or housework while you rest or feed baby.
I take your child to the dentist when you can’t get the time off work, I care for your child when they’re sick, even though it puts me at risk. I’ve signposted families for support with learning difficulties, or to the GP if mum is showing signs of PND. I also reassure you when you have a worry but everything is well.
All this and I earn less per hour than the average domestic cleaner.
Nannies as a whole desperately need a raise. We work alone, we don’t get lunch breaks or the support of our colleagues. It’s a hard job, it’s so hard that I’ve just made the decision to end my nannying career because it’s just too much and I’m burnt out.
I’ve never complained about the financial side of it because it’s my vocation and I live what I do. I love your children like my own. But we are awfully underpaid as an entire industry.

(Also, jobs which are very highly Paid tend to ask you to work 24/6 and be on call on your day off)

If there is an accident they are trained in paediatric first aid.
Let's be objective - a typical, market-standard pediatric first aid training for nannies is three hours of lectures with a mannequin, costing £80 to £100. It looks good on paper, but in practice has close to zero use.

I was paid more than that 10 years ago for doing very little in finance in the city.... 9-5 (with a load of perks, private health, pension, amazing maternity pay....)!

Look after your own kids then

Depends how much value you put on looking after your children.

It bothers me people see that as a minimum wage job.

Most of the research I had done suggested that day nurseries are stressful for babies

🙄

I can just guess what the quality of that “research” was.

@Ilovecranberries actually the most commonly recognised qualification, required for Ofsted registration is a 12 hour course, sometimes a mix of practical and theory where you are tested on every single part and if you fail you fail, they are actually quite strict about it. I can count the times I’ve had to use my training one hand but god I am glad I had the training in each of those instances.

As a qualified manny I wish I was getting 50k a year. I do everything for the children and for the house cooking for whole family, washing, ironing, cleaning, shopping, arranging repairs (or doing it myself). Maybe I need to start charging more.

Just to add to my post, yes compared to childminders, teachers, SEN etc we are paid well but the problem is that they are massively underpaid for their role. Shockingly underpaid!

With nannying there is absolutely no job security, once finances go wrong with parents the nanny is the first to go sometimes with a weeks notice depending on contract. Nannies don’t plan jobs to be long term because children go to school. Any development is their own to find and finance. Absolute flexibility is required...if your train is cancelled and you’ll be an hour late, your nanny will still be there. We cannot make solid plans unless we book holiday off. Appraisals are rare, bonuses dependent on the parents and some nannies may be paid well but they are treated appallingly. I’ve had more awful jobs that good jobs because at the end of the day we are your employee and not all employers are good ones.

Yanbu at all.

[quote Fr0thandBubble]@2bazookas Odd comment. Not “more important” but certainly more difficult, longer hours, more stressful and requiring of a much higher skill level.[/quote]
You certainly like to belittle your nanny as someone who does basically nothing, with no skills or qualifications whereas your job is highly stressful, requiring much higher skill level look after and raise your own children if you think they're that overpaid for. How can you put a price on someone raising your kids for you.

IMHO it is a mistake to compare other caring roles such as care work and nursery work, and say nannies are overpaid, more that these other professions are undervalued and underpaid.

I've been a nanny for 20y and I work hard and earn every penny of my salary. I'm degree educated and put an effort into CPD to ensure I'm as up to date as I possibly can. I spent most of my working hours during lockdown (working longer days than I had initially been employed for) home educating two children with a toddler around, to enable my employers to continue working uninterrupted. I spend a lot of time and effort planning fun and educational activities for them, ferry them around constantly, spend a lot of time menu planning and preparing interesting food in an attempt to encourage a more diverse palate for a veg refusenik. I do all the family's washing and regularly prepare extra to save the parents cooking. I stay late at short notice and I'm super flexible despite having my own child. I work bloody hard and I'm knackered at the end of the week, I love my job and I genuinely love the children. It's a shame other professions are under paid but don't use that to negate our skills and effort.

@MintyMabel

I can just guess what the quality of that “research” was.

It's fairly well documented that babies have raised cortisol levels in day nursery, indicative of a stress response. I found this a fairly decent summary:

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/02/nurseries-childcare-pre-school-cortisol

I saw this on Facebook yesterday and it feels apt to share.

Just to point out as a Nanny myself
I get £15 an hour
Gross
For more than one child ..
I work 12 hours a day with no breaks
I might get to visit the toilet alone for a few seconds
It generally understood that nannies don’t go off sick in a whim
Parents depend on us
We look after children
Develop them
Teach train
Mop up tears
Help sleep help weaning
Help language develop
Give them the grounding they need to start learning at school
Read to them sing to them dance with them
Paint with them
Push them around in prams
Lift them
Constantly
(Have you thought if the wear and tear in our bodies )
We look for signs of developmental Delay and help when it problems arise
We notice if they need eye tests
Or other medical intervention ..
We look after them if they are sick so parents can work
We cook
We clean up our mess and their
mess
We get home way after you
We are too tired to cook for ourselves
Or see friends or do a fitness class in the evening
In the morning we have to leave our home before you to-get to your home so you can get to work intime .
If you don’t notice all the million things your nanny does for you and your children then you dont deserve one

And yes I am qualified with lots of experience and live in london

@Ilovecranberries

If there is an accident they are trained in paediatric first aid. Let's be objective - a typical, market-standard pediatric first aid training for nannies is three hours of lectures with a mannequin, costing £80 to £100. It looks good on paper, but in practice has close to zero use.

And this is outrageously untrue .. most nannies do extra CPD paid for by themselves and this is at a high level .. I suggest you do some research

Crikey - my daughter is a live in nanny works 4 days a week 7am to 5pm (was doing a full time Forensic Psychology degree for 3 years - just finished Upper 2.1 (Hons)) does the washing, cleaning and gets the dinner ready and is being paid £320.00 per month, yes that's right, not a typing mistake, I've not forgotten to add another digit. £320.00 per month. Oh and no student allowances. When I was working I held a very senior role in a school in London and didn't earn 50K!!