If a nanny brings her own child to work in your house, does she usually charge a lower rate?

[HeadFairy]

I don't know if that's a really ignorant thing to ask, but I've had a reply to an add from someone who sounds brilliant, but she's got a three year old daughter and she takes her to work with her. Bearing in mind that the nanny would therefore be looking after three children instead of just my two does that mean she should charge less per day? Also she will be giving her daughter all meals alongside my two so I'm paying for her food. Should that be reflected in her pay?

A nanny doesn't charge... a nanny works for a salary. So the employer states a salary and the nanny may then try to negotiate it.

From previous discussions on here, I think the conclusion was that many parents would want to pay a lower salary.

See these recent message threads:
Explain to me a fair way to calculate pay for nanny who brings own child to work
Nanny with own child?

Generally, and I am no expert, but a nanny who has her own child does charge less, by how much I am not sure.

I have posted on here very recently about this, but as a nanny employer, who very recently employed a nanny with her own child, I paid her full rate, as well as letting her child eat with mine. I know this is not the norm, and the agency did say to me that it was my choice to do so.

I really just feel strongly that it is a very hard job, and she will have alot of work, even if one of the kids is her own. There are so many benefits to having a nanny who is also a mum, and therefore I wanted to be fair to her. Just because she brought along her child, did not mean she did her job any less well, if that makes sense?

So the answer is, she can and probably does expect you to pay her less. And I'm sure you can work something out with the food situation.

"There are so many benefits to having a nanny who is also a mum" - don't suppose you want to list those benefits?

Would some of then not be considered drawbacks?

By listing out the benefits that may help HeadFairy determine if the salary should be lowered or not.

This always causes a huge debate

but personally I feel they should earn 15-20% less than if not bringing own child, it is a perk to bring your child to work with you and does impact even if only a small amount on the time and care given to each individual child.

There are lots of positives to having a nanny with own child.

Look at the nanny's experience and qualifications and what you want to pay and where that sits within the range you wanted to pay then negotiate from there.

Also ask her what she was expecting to be paid

Nannynick, I think I phrased it wrongly. I've never hired a nanny before so I was going to be guided about pay by whoever I interview. That's probably quite wrong I know. I've done a bit of research on rates of pay for nannies, but it all says between £8 and £12 an hour for a part time nanny depending on experience, and as I don't know how much experience a nanny has to have to get the £12 an hour rate, I was going to see what the nannies had been paid in previous jobs, and what they'd expect. I was wondering though about the whole bringing their own child with them to work.

I do appreciate there are advantages to having a nanny who's had their own children, though to be honest for me that's not a requirement. If a nanny has good experience and training then whether they have their own children or not should be irrelevant.

APH - thanks for your input. It's very interesting to read. I agree with you that you're paying them for the job they're doing but I can't help feeling a nanny who's bringing another child with her will have her attention split three ways rather than two ways so that must have an impact.

Of course that said, she does sound lovely (on paper) and her dd is the same age as my ds, so if she comes and it all clicks brilliantly then I guess I'd be prepared to pay to get the right person, regardless of whether she had her own child with her or not. My previous childminder had her own boys at her house too and I was happy with that arrangement especially because one was the same age as my ds and they got on like a house on fire.

I did just wonder if there was a standard practice....

generally a nanny should charge/be paid a lower rate as she will not be giving 100% of her time to your children (and thats possibly why an employer chooses a nanny rather than a cm and shared care iyswim)

nannys are the ONLY workers who can even think of taking their children to work with them, thus saving on huge childcare costs

many nannies expect to be able to take their child, and this shouldnt be so - they are priviledged to be able to

yes some nannys go back to their original job on same salary or dont get a payrise that year, some a bit less, one nanny i know even got a pay rise so actually got more to take her child iyswim

but generally in my area if you start a new job you get paid slightly lower than the going rate

Do you not have a budget to stick to? It would make more sense in my view to calculate what you can afford to pay, so you at least have a maximum salary point. Though do try not to stretch to the maximum, as there can be associated costs to take into account beyond salary and payroll costs. See an example costs of employing a nanny I did back in December.

calculator.kistax.com will do Net to Gross conversion. Figures you have looked at so far may be Net, or maybe Gross depending on where you have got those figures from.

Experience can mean a higher salary but not always. You are right to say that it's about getting the right person regardless of things like them having their own child or not. It's about who you get on with, who your ds gets on with, who you feel will be reliable, who you feel will fit into the ethics of your family.

thanks for those links nannynick, very useful. We do have a budget. At the top end of the going rates for nannies round here we'd be really stretching ourselves so while I wouldn't ever want to compromise on the quality of our childcare, we can't run ourselves in to debt employing Mary Poppins. It's one of the reasons why I asked my original question as I'm not sure we could afford to pay the rate a really well qualified and experienced nanny would expect. However if she brought her child to work it might make it affordable for us.

blondeshavemorehavefun, while it is true that nannies are the only workers who are able to bring their children to work, their work is by no means comparable to a worker in an office environment. Nannies work longer hours, and have no lunch break, they cant just go our for lunch like the rest of us, so their job is quite different.

I dont think all nannies expect to bring their children with them, most realise they will be lucky to find a nice family who will realise that they will do a good job, despite bringing their own child.

Where I think a nanny with her own child worked for us:

She understood my fears and worries, as a mum
She understood when I was perhaps a little too concerned about the small stuff, but humoured me anyway
She was probably a bit more flexible I think, she just fitted right in

Not for one moment did I think her attention was divided. What happens when a family has more than one child, does attention not get divided then?

Your personal choice, do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Good luck.

when I nannied and took my children with me, I charged the same a I had before the children came along.

I worked for 2 wonderful families that were happy to meet my salary expectations and who were very welcoming to the idea of extra children in the house.

I would often buy the children's food shopping (at my expense) so that all of the children were eating the same thing and so that the parents weren't having to pay increased food bills.

If I took all of the children out, I took the kitty money to pay for the charges and my money paid for the petrol and for my children.

It worked very well and I am still very good friends with the families that I worked for all those many years ago.

I have worked as a nanny for twenty years and have always took my children with me for the last seventeen which has never been a problem. But i have always put the other children first not my own. I think nannynick there are lots of benefits of having a nanny that is a mum, you understand the parents a lot better and their anxietys rather than dismissing them as i used to before i had children.

I have employed a nanny with her own child for the past three years. Initially it was not a problem but there have been an increasing number of issues with time (the child is now three). How long do you need the nanny for? There will obviously be problems when that child goes to pre-shool/school with reagrd to drop-offs and collections if your nanny needs to be in more that one place at a time. Do you want you children to be making unecessary car journeys to transport your nanny's child?
As far as pay goes, she was happy initially to accpet lower wages but again, as time has gone on she has become increasingly disgruntled. She is now telling us that nanny's with their own children receive the goign rate. Seems odd to me. Why would anyone want to pay full rate for less that 100%? As it happens she is leaving us soon. If I had my time again I wouldn;t do it. Sorry, maybe not that helpful

We had a nanny who had her won child, and it worked really well. Her child was almost exactly the same age as DS, and they had a fantastic friendship, and there was no conflict over finding suitable activities and outings - I think if the nanny's child was older or younger that could present an issue.

She was paid about 25% less than the going rate, I did provide the food but she often paid fo treats when they were out together. You need to come to an arrangent about paid / unpaid days off - what if her child is too ill for her to bring along? We agreed she would take paid sick days off is she was ill, but unpaid if her child was ill. (but they usually had the same illnesses at the same time so it was ok!)

I think it's reasonable to pay less as they are essentially providing their own childcare as a nannyshare with you.

I am freinds with a nanny who used to take her own children to work and she was always aware that the employers children must take priority at work. lasting freindships are often formed in these situations and my freind was never paid less. Her employers realised she was an excellent nanny and paid her accordingly.

I'm looking for a job that I can take my own child with me at the moment, and am expecting about 20-25% less than going rate. I think that's fair given that I'd be spending more than the reduction on nursery/CM otherwise, and I wouldn't be able to have my DS with me all day!