how much extra do you pay your nanny if she's looking after two children?

[valbona]

Hello,

I'm hopefully having a second baby in November (only 8 weeks gone so don't want to get tooo ahead of myself). We have a nanny who looks after DD 2 days a week and she's said she'd be fine in principle looking after two.

I was wondering whether you normally pay a bit more and if so how much? At the moment she's on 9.50/hour net (we pay NI etc)

Thanks!

Nothing. I've not got a rise when a new baby comes along.
Would you reduce the pay when oldest goes to pre-school or school?

I'm a mum and a nanny employer too. I think its accepted that a nanny works for a family regardless of the number of children. But if we were to ahve another and I go back to work, I'd like to think that we would give our nanny extra. It seems to me to be a nice thing to do in light of the extra responsibility if you can afford it. But its not compulsory.

From an agency point of view... when we place a nanny with a family their salary is not (usually) based on the number of children.

If children are going to school/nursery, in most circumstances the nanny's hours/salary would be reduced unless the family can afford to keep the nanny on full-time as a back-up (incase of illness etc).

However in my personal experience as a nanny, if a new baby is to come along there would be a rise in salary in line with the extra responsibilities. I have been given anything from a 0.50p to £2 per hour rise in the past.

In an office environment we would expect a rise if we were to take on additional work load and with this in mind, i would think that it would be a nice thing to do if you can afford it. But i would agree with nannynick and happyasiam - a rise is not compulsory.

Agree that a raise is not compulsory but I think it's a bit of a piss take not to do it, if you can afford to, as it is more work & more responsibility. As for how much - just depends what you can afford I suppose, but I'd think £1 - £2 ph net.

I wouldn't pay any extra to be honest. Your DD will be at nursery some of the time, I'm assuming, fairly soon so she will then only have one at times. If you do I'd only make it up to £10/hour net

agree a nanny is per family and not child but when you starts a job you know its for one/two children etc

if 3 mths/year etc down the line mb announces she is pregnant, then nice to offer a payrise

i have always had rises when a new baby comes into a job but i know not all employers feel the same as my have

I wouldn't offer a raise. She will not be taking on more work she will be taking on different work. There will be less time for things like toddler cuisine alla Anabell Karmel. The 2 year old will not have one-to-one. The baby also will not have one-to-one. As an employer, you will have to appreciate that the standard of care to the 2 year old will have to give a bit to make room for the baby. The same would happen if you were the one looking after them and had no nanny.

And, incidentally, I would get a raise if I was asked to take on a second project at work. But, I would expect a raise if they asked me to do two full time projects which resulted in me doubling my hours.

So, your nannies work for an wage per hour, not per child. The only exception is a nannyshare where the nanny might expect a small increase to her hourly wage in return for having two sets of bosses/children.

No surprise really that an agency wants you to fork out more £££

Expecting DC3 this year, and not offering our part-time nanny (2 days a week) a payrise. DC1 will be starting full-time pre-school around the same time, and DC2 will be starting part-time pre-school, plus I will be keeping new baby with me a lot of the time anyway, so don't feel workload is necessarily rising.

Sorry, must work on my typing skills.

And, incidentally, I would not get a raise if I was asked to take on a second project at work.

You would however take into account new circumstances when the next pay review comes up. Though an increase in salary then may be more to do with inflation.

Sally - I'm surprised that you say a nannies salary would be reduced when a child goes to pre-school/school. The nannies bills won't change. Most nannies I would have thought could not afford a drop in hours/wage. I would have thought that it would more usual for parents to consider if they needed a nanny at all... or if other forms of childcare would work.

valbona - 9.50net is around 12.89 gross (I am assuming a BR taxcode as it's not a full-time job), so that's already quite a lot, certainly more than I get and I nanny for 3 children (2 under 5, 1 at school). I expect you are in London, as outside of London I'd expect the salary to be lower.

I think Sally is thinking of when the youngest goes to school, the nanny hours would drop. In my experience, when that happens, the nanny types her resignation.

nannynick - yes, in a lot of cases the hours are reduced if the children do go off to school. Of course some families also opt for completely different forms of childcare. In effect, if they choose to continue to employ a nanny, the new hours equal a new role. If the nanny can't or doesn't want to accept the new role, the employer would need to make her redundant and re-advertise for a part-time nanny (which can be pricey and complicated ? but not uncommon). In my experience, it is more unusual for a family to keep a nanny on full time whilst the children are not at home.

Valbona - congratulations on your pregnancy by the way :) I would chat with your nanny at some point to see how she feels and go with your gut instinct. As some others have pointed out, she is already on a good NET salary but it would be nice to give her a little extra if you can!

Good luck :)

But, Sally, that only applies to when the youngest goes to school full time. The point was made that the salary waould not be reduced for any child going full time.

And let us not forget that agencies always suggest higher pay for nannies than what the market really dictates because they get a commission based on that salary.

So, Albona, you could offer more if you really want to. But, it is of course not the done thing and you really don't need to. Two children is not exactly a heavy workload for a nanny.

Nothing, they get the same no matter how many children. Unless you want to give a pay rise for goodwill. But her pay is already quite alot assuming you're outside London.

The biggest difference to the nanny could be the lunch break or rather the lack of it as it is not easy to put 2 children to nap at the same time. But perhaps your eldest would drop the nap anyway?

If you don't want/cant afford to pay extra (you don't have to) but the same time want to keep the nanny happy you can a) lower the cooking/cleaning/ironing standards (if she does those) or b) be helpful regarding break i.e. if you are not anti-tv suggest she can use 30 min tv/dvd so she can have her lunch if she has one awake child all day.

I don't quite get why some of the same people are saying don't offer your nanny any more for looking after more (of your) children - she should be paid the same for however many children she cares for, and its not about numbers, but in the context of questions about nannies returning to work with their own babies always seem to argue that she should get paid less because it is about how many children she cares for if one of them is hers.

minderjinx - of course they should be paid less when taking one of their own children to work with them because its their child and not the employers and they're the ones paying.
Just in the way a nanny share would expect more as the care is shared between two families a nanny taking her child to work with her is basically a nanny share. She WILL be spending less time on your children as she has to care for her own.

You are right minderjinx nannying has never been paid per child. I was about to post what you had written.

thank you very much! so many replies, all really helpful. we are bang in the middle of London hence the relatively high rate we're paying already.

I suppose I find the thought of looking after two children so terrifying that I thought it might be normal to offer more money ... I shall do some sums and see if we can squeeze it up to 9.75 or 10 - I do really like her and would like to give her a payrise anyway if I can.

thanks again all, v valuable advice

minderjinx - I think it's: a child from the same family doesn't increase the nannies salary. A child from a different family, does increase the nannies salary (but if it's the nannies own child, then that means a decrease as the increased salary would be due to splitting the cost between two families).

The more children there are does not increase the cost, but the more 'employers' there are does, as there are two different employers to keep happy - plus the job may end if one of those employers pulls out.

See your point though. It's all a bit tricky working out what is a reasonable price to pay for the childcare.

As a childminder you typically get paid more for the number of children you have, as fees are usually on a per-child basis.

I can't believe the child care rates, it's bordering slave labour and I won't nanny for parents who don't understand one child is different to looking after multiple children, especially theses days where children are completely unruly and eat terrible diets that ulter their behaviour, ( parents go to work after giving children sugar based breakfasts together with the childs been up all night playing video games, it's a dam night mare) the work load is different in so many levels, I always paid more for multiple children when I had four children two nannies were needed.
Parents expect the best care, and have to Understand it is more work the more children , we are in the age of entitlement so children can be obnoxious also.

@corrinejcarroll this is 11yrs old. How on earth did you manage to post on it

and fwiw the @valbona was paying a good rate over a decade ago

tho obv now we always discuss gross 😉

How much do childminders charge daily and overnight please. Would this be per child or if more 1 you charge a flat rate

It's per family, but I hope you're using net as a shorthand and you don't actually have a contract which has a net amount? I always paid my nannies gross. one suddenly had a big tax code change as they found that she had some wrongly paid SSP a few years ago. If I'd offered her a net salary it would have been me paying off that debt. If you do have a contract that says net pay I would use the new baby to give her a small rise and change it to gross.

oh for goodness sake, zombie thread. d'oh.