Salary or Hourly Wage for Nanny? WWYD?

[bonitagbchica]

Evening Ladies,
DH and I started interviewing nannies this week and so we started thinking about how to pay her...

The thing is is that I am going back to university to study Midwifery... which means for a block of six weeks, I will be in uni 9am-4pm, needing our nanny 15 hours per week. The next block of six weeks is on placement, which include various shifts: earlies (7am-3pm), lates (2pm-9pm) and nights (8pm-6am), making hours a little uncertain. With this in mind, DH and I have considered offering our nanny a salary, and asking her to work the hours required per week....

Now this could either work in either of our favour (as neither of us really know what shifts I'll get), but I was thinking that it'd definitely mutually beneficial in terms of guaranteed income for her and guaranteed outgoings for us every month.

So mums and nannies alike, what do you think? What would you prefer? Would you keep tabs on hours to make sure it's in your favour or would you not bother? Opinions please!

Many Thanks in advance!

Antonia

I just typed out a long reply and then decided it was gobbledegook!

It'll be quite a task to find a nanny that can offer you this level of flexibility. So, with this in mind, I think that the guaranteed wage needs to go in the nannies favour. What would be the minimum and maximum number of hours you would need her for?

We have a lovely and very flexible nanny - we pay her a salary based on 35hrs per week and if she works additional hours then we pay her extra for those. Could that be a possibility for you? I agree with nbee that it would be very difficult to find someone so flexible that they would accept working without a minimum guaranteed income....

I think that is the sort of thing I am talking about. A guaranteed amount of hours per week - and if you need her to work less then she still has a set income - and if you need her to work more you pay the extra.

If you have weeks when you don't use the set hours for uni the maybe you could use the spare set hours for evening babysitting, which is fantastic to make sure you and DP get some proper time together, it's been great for us as we don't have to plan an evening out as much as we used to, the babysitting is effectively paid for so you do get around to going out instead of just talking about it!

Do factor in studying time at Uni - if you're in lectures 9-4 you'll also need library time, tutorials and possibly some peace and quiet for reading.

What are the core hours you would definitely need covered? What are the max hours you'd need? I think you then need to split it down the middle and some weeks you pay more than you need as a flexibility premium but there will probably be a few weeks where you pay less.

If I were to apply for this job I'd expect either to be paid a standard week and you bank the hours as it were, so some weeks will be much heavier than others, or have a minimum income and an overtime rate. Personally I'd rather know the money will be there so would go for option 1.

Congrats on getting a place to do midwifery

An annual salary would be better all round I feel, for the reasons you give - the nanny and you know what money is being paid. Plus it could be a fixed monthly amount spread over 12 months, rather than just term-time.

Working out what that amount should be though will be tricky, especially given the changes to the hours worked each block.

I would wonder how easy it will be to find a nanny who is prepared to do the hours you want. Is this a live-in or live-out job? I'm assuming the latter.

You make it sound as though you have found a nanny already, is that the case?

Interesting questions and I think given the current climate we´ll all need more and more flexibility with our childcare. I generally agree a set number of hours with my nanny and then an overtime rate as someone else outlined earlier but I wouldn´t have need the same level of flexibility as you. Agreeing the salary will be interesting. It might be worth looking at
"nanny salary guide" on the internet to get an idea of going rates.

You could also look at other occupations like nursing, police and other shift workers to see what ´extra incentive´ is built into jobs with shift work and agree an hourly rate that incorporates the flexibility/ shift work that you require up front.

It may also be hard to find someone to fill this need so probably best to advertise on a few online sites like www.nannygps.com, gumtree etc

Good luck, it will be worth it in the end