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?!

A few years ago friends daughter was on £150 a week live in for an MP, she thought that great welsh girls are cheaper I guess.

Supply and demand. Hats off to nannies who know their worth.

@Fr0thandBubble

Maybe the answer is what Genevieva suggested above - that employers should get to offset nanny costs from the tax they pay in the same way businesses do.

The answer to what - you being pissed off at your childcare costs?

I trained in a nursery and all the girls were from Wales. The manager told me it’s because they were cheaper!

But my husband and I managed to look after them, homeschool them and do our jobs at the same time...

If that's a sustainable scenario, are you considering keeping it up?

I'm 22 miles from London, according to the milestone and nanny salaries can vary quite a bit as there are some high net worth families but also a lot of families who are not as wealthy.

Being able to pay the cost of childcare from pre-taxes income would be good for many parents. Childcare vouchers, tax-free childcare, schemes like that have helped a bit but I doubt any Government will extend such schemes to be open to all regardless of income or regardless of childcare cost.

No I don’t think they are overpaid. I do think teachers, carers, nurses and many other caring roles are underpaid. Qualifications do not necessarily relate to pay and neither does stress (however I would also contend that there are very few professions more stressful than the care industry where a mistake means physical harm as opposed to loss of money).

You're out evenings and weekends too? The poor nanny must be worn out and deserves every penny!!

@Ilovecranberries

If the nanny is ‘fantastic’, pay them a fair wage. There is nothing fair about minimum wage.

OP - with respect, lay off the qualifications and money talk and think about the value this person added to your family. You can get an NVQ in Clipboard Management these days, studying isn’t everything (and I say this as someone who is about to finish an MA).

Your skills aren’t comparable with the skills of a nanny I’m afraid so it isn’t a great comparison, different jobs. I’m surprised with all of the skills, education and qualifications that you’ve been harping on about, you couldn’t see that for yourself.

@Fr0thandBubble

A London nanny gets roughly £10 NET an hour.

I was told the closer to M25 the more money but I’m not convinced!

@nannymags

I trained in a nursery and all the girls were from Wales. The manager told me it’s because they were cheaper!

Ah really. The icing on the cake was when the last salary cheque bounced after she had left. Her mum had to step in and threaten legal action against the mother.

Not necessarily. Depends on which part of London and how much experience the nanny has

@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.

Very succinctly put!

@Fr0thandBubble

Maybe the answer is what Genevieva suggested above - that employers should get to offset nanny costs from the tax they pay in the same way businesses do.

Or people could just accept that when they have children and need childcare they are going to need to pay for it?

We all make our decisions when we have kids. You choose to have a nanny then you have to pay for that

@FrustratedMess I think it’s a lot more than £10 net per hour. I don’t know anyone paying their nanny less than £12 net per hour around here at least (and, as I say, we don’t live in one of the most expensive areas of London).

Just because I have a nanny it doesn’t make me one of “The Rich”

Oh get real. You can pay 50k out of your net corporate salary - that implicitly puts you in the top few percent pay wise. If you are furloughing her then I presume you mean the government funded furlough scheme?

Instead of carping about a woman doing a 50 hr week, making herself available for extra hours, proving your children (including with special needs) with a safe, secure environment you could have chosen a cheaper option. Wouldn't fit as well with the long stressful hours, would make more work for you but you had the luxury of choice.

If you wanted a nanny with qualifications you could have stipulated some but presumably you chose someone you felt would be good with your children rather than focus on nannies with degrees.

No nanny earns such an amount of money (especially unqualified) as you claim in your post. Maybe after tax, but no nanny earns £50K a year, that’s a blatant lie! £50K a year would translate to approx. £950/week. Show me a nanny who earns that much. Your post is a joke!

Hertfordshire (St Albans) and family member is full time experienced nanny and earns £26k - not live in

I don’t think she’d agree that £50k is normal

If being a Nanny were that easy, lacking in the requirement for any special skill or experience, and compatible with having your own life and family, there would have been loads of suitable people offering their services to you for less than you have been paying, @Fr0thandBubble. Given the fact that there obviously weren’t people queueing at your door asking to do the easy job you were advertising for, and you had to pay so much to get one, OP, I would say that’s damning evidence you are deluded to think Nannies are overpaid! If you mean you don’t think Nannies deserve that level of pay, in all honesty, I doubt you deserve your level of pay, either - you’re just charging a premium, like nannies, because there aren’t enough people willing and able to do what you do, for the hours that you do, and to the standard expected.

@Rainbow12e Two parents doing full-time jobs looking after AND homeschooling two children 24/7 is ENTIRELY comparable to one nanny looking after two children (one at nursery 9-12 and the other at school 9-3:30pm) and then getting to go home at 6:30pm and having their evenings and weekends to themselves.

My nanny loved working for us, we were very good employers and we consider her our friend and likewise. Your post was bloody rude.