To ask how much you’d expect a babysitter to cost on NYE

[ThatMauveRaven]

20yo DD has been asked (last minute) to babysit her manager’s two young children tomorrow night. They’ve offered her £60 in cash to be there from 8pm-1am. The two kids will most likely be asleep in bed, so she won’t exactly have to do much work but I still think that this is quite stingey considering it’s New Years Eve!

Thoughts?

YABU - £60 is enough
YANBU - I’d expect to pay more

18 months and a 4yo! They aren’t the easiest boys either

The boss is tight and exploiting his relationship in the hierarchy of work.

I think it depends a lot on where you live and general cost of living and wages in that area.

NMW for a 20 year old is lower than that for adults 21 and over, and presumably payment to a babysitter would be cash in hand.

Do people working in hospitality get higher rates on NYE? Imagine this depends on where you work.

And I guess also - how much does OP's DD earn in her normal work?

This. I think that's reasonable actually considering the age. But I can see I'm in the minority.

I think it's worth her letting them know that for each additional hour it's another 20 etc just in case they decide to stay on and not actually come home at 1am. I would get this in a text.

This is absolutely shocking! Shame on you. Unless you only have the babysitter for an hour in which case great

£80 minimum.

Try and get a quote for a local babysitter for 5-6 hours at NYE. I bet it’s not £60 and then he wouldn’t know them. He is taking advantage of his young employee and trying to get a cheap favour. If I was her, I would decline, if something goes wrong it will affect their work relationship.

That’s a lowball offer, especially on such short notice.

We pay £30/hour on big holidays like NYE, always rounded up to the next hour. And we ensure there’s something nice for dinner & dessert (often a takeout meal but we send options in advance).

For non-holidays our standard rate is £25/hour and we make sure there’s something for them to eat if the DC have already eaten/gone to bed (if they’re feeding the DC dinner we’d of course plan for them to join in that meal) but it may be a frozen pizza or such. We don’t adjust hourly rates at all for DC being asleep, but if we’re gone for a full overnight we do switch to a flat rate.

I babysat through uni and stayed with several of “my” families well into my professional career when I didn’t really need to the money, often rearranging my own schedule to make dates work. But only for families that treated me well - families who underpaid (or cancelled frequently or whatnot) I let go. The kids I sat for for years outgrew me and one of the oldest is now a favorite sitter for my own DC. It’s worth treating sitters as well as you can afford.

ETA: We’re in a very high cost of living area and sitting rates are pretty locality specific. But there’s no where in the UK I’d expect an adult sitter to accept £12/hr on NYE.

I would have said anywhere between £100 and £150

Jesus this would be crazy money!!

I think it’s fair when it’s someone you know who isn’t a professional babysitter and likely doesn’t have references/ paediatric first aid/ a DBS etc and if the kids will be in bed. I babysit the kids of friends and family for free. Presumably it will be cash in hand and your DD isn’t going to declare the money earnt to HMRC and pay tax on it etc in which case I don’t think she should get too self-righteous about minimum wage.

If employing a stranger for whom it is their main job obviously it may be different, if someone will be declaring their hours worked and paying tax and where you’re expecting them to provide a CV, DBS and references and have relevant training/ childcare qualifications then obviously minimum wage laws apply. For a person you know just earning a bit of extra cash on the side though then nobody expects to receive minimum wage, just as nobody expects the babysitter to declare it and pay tax.

£12 per hour sounds just about enough. They could throw in an extra £20 as it's NYE or if being very generous round up to £100. It sounds like an easy job.

In terms of Bank Holidays - yes, it's an ordinary day. However, it's the most important celebratory evening of the year in some places and in many areas there is an expectation that people will finish up earlier on the 31st.

I think it’s totally fine for a babysitter.

@ThatMauveRaven Babysitting counts as work and therefore minimum wage applies whether you like it or not

I presume by that, that whatever DD earns will be declared?

If she has to take tax/ NI off that amount, then yes it seems a bit stingy.
If it's cash in hand, that's a different calculation to make.

DD has been out having a bit too good of a time for the past few nights so is seeking a bit of a quieter NYE than usual.. 🤣 She’s just undecided as to whether the £60 is fair or not
Seems like she could earn money for doing what she wants to do i.e. have a quiet evening without having to go out to celebrate NYE

Traditionally, babysitting has always been seen as a 'cash-in-hand' job, which will pay a decent- ish rate, but not a MW rate. (unless of course the babysitter is a qualified nanny, which changes things)

Ultimately it's down to your DD to decide if she's happy spending a quiet evening earning £60, or spending a quiet evening not earning £60

I pay my babysitter €15 an hour it's the going rate now.

Going rate has always been double for nye

This is all about supply and demand and I would guess a man (her manager) thinking he can get away with paying nothing and she will be 'grateful' for 'sitting doing nothing' for an easy £60.

Your DD should wake up and smell the coffee, she's (almost certainly) holding all the cards. Get her to reply saying that she can change her plans but it'll be £120. He's a CF.

BTW she's also needs to understand that in this brave new world we live doing her boss 'a favour' for babysitting in the cheap will not get her any brownie points. It's every man (or woman) for themselves these days.

Oh she’s well aware of that! Said manager isn’t the type that would do his employees any favours, hence she being careful not to be taken advantage of. I’d say it could lead to a slippery slope

I'd expect to pay £100 for NYE.

That's good @ThatMauveRaven she sounds very switched on, good for her.

DD has politely offered him a flat rate of £100 for the night to make it worth ‘changing her plans’. We await the reply..

£60 if i had no plans and kids in bed seems easy money to me. Equally if i was considering going out, or even take away with parent i would not change plans for £60. Or if kids need a bit more attention and i couldn't be bothered I would want more.

So I think they are not being unreasonable to offer £60, and dd not unreasonable to say no thanks to £60 either.

I've never paid for a babysitter so I've no idea what the going rate is, but it's not outrageous as they are paying her over minimum wage for her age. Probably a little stingy with it being NYE, but your daughter can take it or leave it.