Is £500 per week net really the going rate for a London nanny?

[Gangle]

Have been told this many times by nannies and agencies but, having looked through the ads on Gumtree and Nannyjob, it seems that lots of employers offer salaries of a lot less than this. We may be hiring a new nanny in the near future and it would help a lot financially if I could get her to agree to a salary of £375 net per week for a 4 day week or £475 for a 5 day week, or even less £350/£450) if possible. Will she think I am taking the piss though? Still works out to a salary of around 33/34k, I believe. I want to pay her as much as I can but paying £500 a week is going to make things tight financially. We paid our previous nanny £500 per week but this was a nanny share in which each family paid £250 so it wasn't so much of a big deal

Boffinmum explained the net thing - it dates from the introduction of NI apparently. Stupid tradition...

Oh sorry, missed that. Seems bonkers

Lol Tavvy! I left my soul and my dignity with the housekeeper in this job. I won't be getting either back anytime soon

Lol Tavvy! I left my soul and my dignity with the housekeeper in this job. I won't be getting either back anytime soon

agree nick, its the agencies that are to blame, as i said in my earlier post that 5 near me all state in nett

one of the best agencies near me is www.elizabethhenrynannies.co.uk/ owned and run by my dear friend sam, and she is an ex nanny,mummy and also worked in an recruitment for a few years after nannying and before coming a mummy - so she has the best knowledge and is fab/professional and LISTENS

she states salary in gross and we often bat across ideas when she wants to have a chat

Sounds familiar wrinklyraisin.
I thought my soul and dignity had been lost forever as our housekeeper was like Mrs Danvers and the butler was less Jeeves and more Nightmare on Elm Street crossed with Mr Hudson on speed. They pay more for the quirk factor I think as well as us being an accessory to child rearing

Once you have a rep for being able to work succesfully with challenging families you're pretty much screwed as agencies latch onto you with talons. Funny how they're always the ones that offer the most cash!
Agencies are very pushy. Mine quoted a ridiculous net price to a family once for a really ordinary temp job when we'd already agreed the standard rate. The rate in the contract they sent to the family was not the same as in mine. Does she cover nationwide Blondes. (Must go and check out website)

As a qualified private Nanny, i earned £400pw net when i worked in London. At the time i thought i was extremely well paid, having found the job independently.
However, when attending an agency interview for a new job, the owner of the agency actually laughed at me and told me i had been grossly underpaid. I now work on the south coast and get paid the same wage here as i did there.
You do see ads on Gumtree etc offering paltry wages, but in my opinion no decent, qualified childcarer who has faith in their abilities would work for anything less than the wage that has been recommended by a London agency. You have to pay the best to get the best.

not all wealthy families are awful to work for.

I get paid £12 net per hour (20 hours a week over 2 days), in a fully staffed house and the family are lovely. I started with a 2 yr old and a 6 week old and they are now 3 and 1. They are not based in London.

I am level 3 qualified and have over 20 years of experience and specialise in maternity jobs so most of my nanny jobs have included a baby.

An excellent nanny is worth the minimum nett hourly rate of £10an hour. I run an Agency and charge a flat fee , so it's not in my personal interest to try and get the nannies more per hour. I try and get them what they deserve hourly rates vary between £8-£12 nett an hour. The latter being for a qualified nanny, excellent job history and possibly a 3 day week ?? As a parent you get what you pay for with childcare. A nanny that has trained for 2 years full time and done other courses eg MNT to grow professionally should be commanding minimum £10 an hour. It's a demanding role and should be valued.
I do advertise my roles as gross as much as possible :) only when I'm talking hourly do I talk nett.

£500 a week doesn't sound ridiculously high. Nannies traditionally have been the domain of the well-off, if not the wealthy. I don't think good ones with qualifications will find themselves priced out of a job. If someone wants to pay less than the going rates recommended by the agency, they would need to advertise themselves and find one through methods with possibly a few less checks and balances (Gumtree etc). There will always be someone desperate enough to take the cheap jobs, whether or not that person would make the best employee is another matter.

I advertised on Gumtree at £8.50/hour and had 100 responses within 24hours. London is awash with European teachers who are (legally) looking for childcare work because it's unavailable in their home country. They may not have UK childcare qualifications, but they are often degree educated in something to do with children (primary school teaching, child development, children's psychology)

Interesting, when I was looking about 18 months ago in Surrey, I would have had to pay more there for a Nanny than I do now in London. There is a supply/demand issue I would say - too many people looking for childcare work. Admittedly not all of them are suitable, but there is sufficient supply that the wage rate has fallen.

Can someone give me some guidance please on the ballpark rate for a nanny in West Lothian for around 45-50 hours a week please. Also I need the rate I pay the nanny, their tax is their affair if they are self employed so I am looking for an all inclusive rate.

thanks

sillconglen nannies can NOT be self employed unless they are all temp jobs, a full time nanny can't be SE unless ofcourse you want her to dictate what hours she works, when she doesn't want to come in and send someone else in when she's sick or just doesn't want to come.

As above (mostly) have said 500 is def. the going rate in central London for live out. Personally I earn a bit more but am working a lot of hours and have to travel a lot with family so can't really have a life.
Just because it is the average doesn't mean you can get someone for less or that they will be rubbish when you do.

My last job in Chelsea I attended a playgroup for nannies/CM and their charges and it was the Norland nannies (not saying all of them cause all the other i have met are amazing but this particular group of 4) that were the most unfriendly and unwelcoming and that sat there and ate chocolates and read their magazines. Felt sorry for their parents probably paying a fortune and having a nanny that does that.

Someone above also said that don't believe what you read on MN that a lot of people don't pay tax and NI but that is just stupid IMO. There are a lot of nannies at the moment who find this out and report them straight away even if they aren't taking the job. Can you imagine if your employers didn't pay yours??! This is our career we deserve the same as everyone else.

I think you can find lovely people for lower rates maybe qualified but little experience, maybe experienced but not qualified or their rent is cheaper they live at home.

I am just outside London (Buckinghamshire) and I get paid £16,500 per year (before TAX and NI) for 45 hours per week.

£10 net seems the norm in SE London. Generally 10 or 11 hours a day.

Yes it is the going rate but it always depends on the Nanny really and you can definitely give it a try and see what happens, some don't go anywhere under 500, others are happy to earn less. I would be happy about a 4 days a week job for said salary because I am young, not qualified etc. and would love to have a 5th day to do something else next to nannying, i.e. courses or similar

when this thread was done over 2.5years ago, yes the normal for an exp nanny was about £10 nett in south east/london areas

now there are jobs paying that but there are also more nannies about and parents reliese that they can pay less so more like £8/9hr

as long as the hours are there, then i dont mind the pay cut so much iyswim, ie i need to earn ideally between £360/400 gross a week and thats for 3 days but may be 12hr days , but if 10hr days then weekly salary is lower and i just cant afford to pay all my bills

www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation
The London living wage is currently £8.55 per hr. This is considered to be the minimum rate to be able to sustain a reasonable standard of living in London. Most London nannies will work a 10 hr day so it's relatively easy to get to £10 per hr/ £500 a week in no time. Some will pay tax out of this but more often than not, it's a net figure.

Most cleaners in London will charge £8-10 per hr without agency costs on top so a nanny will command a higher hourly rate for obvious reasons.

500 a week wasn't unheard of at all 12 years ago when I worked as as nanny in London. Even 5 years ago I was charging 10 an hour but that was part time.

I am really shocked at the number of people who still think it's OK not to pay your nanny's tax and NI. It is well known and well-publicised that a full-time nanny is an employee and it is not lawful to treat them as self-employed. or fair, frankly. I pay £9.50 an hour in Surrey plus tax and NI on top, which for a 4-day week with 2 school age kids I think is fine, and seems competitive judging by what local agencies tell me.

There are also lots of nannies being paid a lot less.
I have never paid that much because I simply can't afford it. But I do pay tax, etc.

If I was getting £500 a week if travel from ascot to London to nanny I'd have no complaints! Seems like a lot considering I've been in childcare 9 years and haven't yet taken home that.
I worked in private nursery and crèche so far.

I've been a Nanny in Kensington for past 8 years, and i definitely think that if you would like very trustful and very experienced nanny who will know all area, huge network of other Nannies,who will be very well organise for playdates,activities, and most important who will put health,safety and HAPPINESS for your children at first... you will need to pay at least 10/h net. Only desperate nanny will agree for less than that,nanny who wants the job not because she loves spend time with kids , but because she needs the money... she will do the hours, mostly on the phone with friends.. not caring about the kids. You need to understand that Happy Nanny means Happy Children...and that should be priority for parents. Nanny needs to live as well... same as you. Parents should think that nanny who looks after your children is responsible for their life..., lots of parents do not think about that, and try get as cheap care as possible,to safe money.

mag25

You are confused, at so many levels... it's people like you who propagate the myth that any nanny worth their salt should not get out of bed for less than £10 ph net, making expectations of inexperienced nannies way out of line with market forces. Maybe in Kensington, with your working conditions, £10phn is reasonable. But it's just not true to say that you must pay that much elsewhere or in any other nanny job to get a decent nanny.

Only desperate nanny will agree for less than that,nanny who wants the job not because she loves spend time with kids , but because she needs the money...

That's just not true. I'm in London and I've had very nice, competent, capable nannies for less than £7ph net, and also totally crap ones for £11ph net. Salary is mostly determined by market forces, not solely by how wonderful a nanny you are. Anyway what the hell is wrong with working because you need the money?? Or do you work purely because you love it?

The London living wage is £8.55 gross, not net.