Is £22,000 gross a reasonable nanny for London?

[staranise]

I'm getting very confused as to what is a credible wage. Not helped by the fact that it seems whatever I offer, I'll be working at a loss!

We have three children but two are at school, youngest is 2 and pretty easy. No cleaning/household duties, the occasional cooking for the children. It would be full-time, 40 hours a week, paid holiday, plus NI/tax of course, I'm coordinate holiday with gps so the nanny would rarely have all three in the school hols.

The thing is, i know that gives a quite low hourly rate of £8.20 but is that compensated by the fact that it's full-time, only one school run (one would be covered by me or DH) etc?

can you try and make your days longer and maybe do 3.5days for that wage so that the nanny could earn extra money elsewhere

If you could put the youngest in a nursery then I would go for a nursery/au pair combination personally. At the moment there are hundreds of spanish graduates around 23/24 years old desperate to work for a year or two to learn english because of state of Spanish Economy. aupair world a good site if you think this cold be a good solution. that way you at least see some of your salary at the end of each month...

Oh yes, if you have some space at home, aupair and nursery combination is ideal for you :) Much easier and less financially draining than dealing with having to pay a full time nanny and all that goes with it.

Unfortunately we have zero space at home (the joys of living in London!) - an au pair/nursery would be ideal for us otherwise.

I'm probably jumping the gun as haven't even got the job first but I like to plan ahead... I'm prepared to just break even, particularly in the short term (til DC3 turns three) but reluctant to actually pay to go to work.

Some posters have mentioned nanny with own child. I thing it is a good idea, would you considare it?

There's a lovely nanny I know who might - her daugher is the same age as my youngest DC, she lives locally, has babysat for me before. I will have to start asking around and see what comes up! Thanks again.

nwoc is prob the best bet, she will be happy to accept a lower salary and also be happy with shorter hours as be home at a nice time for her own childs tea/bath/bed

If you talk to her make sure you discuss what happens with sickness (your dcs and her dd)
Good luck.