Can any nannies/ parents give me some advice please?

[tigerlilt]

Hey! I'm about to take my first proper job as a nanny but just want to see if what I'm being offered is reasonable as I genuinely have no clue! So its live in (really nice accommodation), all board included and hours are 7.30- 5/6 with a few hours off in the afternoon. The pay is £750 a month, is this normal with all food ect included or is it low? Thanks!

What qualifications do you have for the role?

I have first aid training, safeguarding training and have worked with children for 3 years.

It's low for a nanny, it's more like an au pair/mothers help role. Are there any other benefits included?

Make sure you have a firm idea of hours. It's sounds like it could be quite variable and you could end up being underpaid.

Also, depends where you are. In London, that's very low.

National Minimum Wage is £11.44, but maybe lower if you are living in, don't know? About £10.00 per hour would be absolute minimum I would think.

That seems very low to me. I was on £300/week net, live in, in 2003! This was average at the time.

When I employed nannies I was always surprised by how little difference there was between live in and live out. So seems very low to me. They are basically giving you pocket money as pp says — that’s not a salary to build a career assuming you’re on long hours.

I believe your wage has to be above minimum, regardless of it being
‘live in’. Either way, that’s incredibly low for a nanny. The ‘hours off’ in the afternoon are a red herring too- you can’t get other work in that time, presumably in school holidays/if children are ill then you need to have them? They’re taking you for a massive ride op. My first ever nanny job in about 2010 I was on £10 per hour net, I was very experienced with children but had no nanny experience of qualifications beyond first aid etc. I’m now on about £17 net per hour for my work. If they’ve done any research at all to get that figure then don’t take the job, they’ll be awful to work for.

That’s appalling and would take you below the national minimum wage.

typical nanny salaries in England are about £35-45k per year depending on where you’re based. There is really not much deduction for being provided with accommodation, nor for having “a few hours off” in the afternoon because of course you can’t work in another role.

please do not take this role. You promise there are many far better opportunities open to you.

We paid around 38k for our FT live out nanny, and she worked shorter hours than that. That sounds extremely low to me.

Wow cheeky fuckers! An au pair would get around that but only be working a few hours a day and still have board and lodgings. Way too low.

They are exploiting you.

That’s very low, way below minimum wage.

Run a mile! That’s so exploitative.

My DC are older now and I haven’t had a nanny for a few years but I have had three over a 15 year period and my last nanny (live in) was earning more in a week than your employer is planning on paying you (edited to add: in a month). I was in London but was not an outlier in terms of salary and benefits.

Either your proposed employers are reprehensible people who are deliberately paying you below minimum wage in which case I will guarantee you won’t get a proper contract and they won’t be paying your tax and NI properly, both if which are problematic for you.

OR

they’re naively clueless in which case working for them will be a nightmare: there’ll never be a kitty, your hours will fluctuate, they’ll be difficult over holidays etc

I would expect at least minimum wage with the accommodation covered. They are trying to take advantage of you. Also make sure anyone that employs you does it properly and that you will be on a payroll with all the employee benefits like holiday pay, sick leave, maternity pay, pension.

Also , how old are you op? There are different Minimum wages for different age groups

That’s not really the point because live in Nannies have generally always been paid more than NMW

Absolutely not. If they double it, I would consider it. If not, walk away and get another role!

Ok, so putting it bluntly, the first two things mean squat.

When you say "worked with children" is this full time in a nursery, or helping at a gymnastics club kind of level. Do you hold any levels of the childcare qualifications?

Anyone can call themselves a nanny. You need no qualifications and that makes levels of pay, miles apart. We've had a few, some outstanding, some not so.

We paid according to each specific person. Our best nanny, had been a private nanny full time for 7 years before she came to us. Had excellent references. Was a scout leader. Had the top level of childcare qualification (is that level 3 or 5, I can't remember it's a while back now?). She held cookery.ans nutrition qualifications. She didn't even mention having paediatric first aid (although obviously did) as it's such a basic thing. She was on £38k live out.

We had another, only for a few months as like temporary cover. She had done a lot of babysitting locally and had good references. First aid, DBS checked. And she was on much less. Because whilst she was a lovely girl, you pay for qualifications and experience. She was no more a nanny than I am. And you could really tell. The contrast between her and our best, was stark.

It sounds very low, even with accomodation/food. What is the accommodation like? A room or your own separate annex?

But I guess if you weren't live in and you had to live somewhere else close by, how much would you be paying per month for everything, rent, bills, food etc?

No it’s not normal, it’s possibly illegal it’s so low.

Do you have childcare qualifications? Are you/will you be ofsted registered?

It's really, really low even without those.

You should be being paid at least minimum wage. In April they changed the law to require minimum wage for 'live in domestic workers', so I would assume the same for a nanny. So presumably £11.44ph assuming you are at least 21. So even if you were only working 7 hours a day with a long PM break, that would still be around £80 a day, or £400 a week. I suspect you are doing more that 7 hours too.

That’s really low pay. I’d expect a £8-10k a year difference for live in/live out.

Salary around £40k based on experience.

That's very low,. especially for those 'split shift' hours.