Babysitting - what is the going rate for central London?

[Doozie]

That's it really - what is the going rate for an occassional babysitter in London? Is there a difference between day and night rates?

The babysitter isn't a childcare professional but mature with a lot of experience with babies and children.

Many thanks.

Anywhere between £7 - £10 IME. Have you asked her how much she wants to charge?

Daytime rates, would expect £7-8/h, up to about 6pm.
Evening babysitting around £6/h, then back up to about £8 for after midnight.
That's the (rough) rates for a well-respected babysitting agency I know of in London.

That sounds pretty cheap Aerobreaking. Once tax is paid by nanny on her earnings wouldn't that (£6/h) be equivalent to under min. wage for most people? I wouldn't agree to work for that. I charge £10 (although qualified, first aid etc.) and work as much as I need/want to.

Those rates are for the babysitting strand of the agency, not nannying, Oligo.
Rates for a nanny employed regularly would be higher I would expect, but occasional babysitting is less - as it's not a full time job/main earnings, just an extra. I am employed as a babysitter by the agency.

£6/h for evening is reasonable I think - 7pm til 12pm earns £30; £50 at £10/h seems an awful lot to me for watching tv in someone else's house!

Are you a nanny who also babysits oligo? Have you managed to build up a decent network of contacts? That seems the hardest thing to do without being attached to an agency.

£7 per hour with a minimum of four hours.

Aerobreaking, she is asking Central London prices.

Doozie, experienced nannies would charge around £10 ph.

£8-10 day and night

Once tax is paid by nanny on her earnings wouldn't that (£6/h) be equivalent to under min. wage for most people?

minimum wage is stated gross if i am right.

yes minimum wage is gross, currently £5.93 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over

We pay £7 or £8. A few have asked for £10 but as I can find good sitters who take £7 or £8, I never book the more expensive ones.

Yes, £10 was for babysitting (not via agency). Exceptions are people very very local (not central Lond) and one family who I work for in the day so don't have to travel to get to. Admittedly most bookings are Thurs. Fri. Sat.

It is usual for me to help put children to bed, milk, clean teeth, put pjs on, read story, late feeds etc. I also don't have 4 hour minimum. And sometimes if I'm there for ages I'll wash up/unload dishwasher/take washing in.

There are a lot cheaper babysitters around and some of them must be good but ime they are often not qualified childcare workers and tend not to have bothered with paying for first aid, crb, insurance etc. Just reminded me that one nanny I spoke to recently thought our emergency number was 911.

ah yes so over min. wage amount by 7p (though bs is mostly self-employed so not legally relevant?). Still after 10 years in the field I aim to earn more than that.

We pay £8.50 per hour to our babysitter - and that's the same rate as a babysitting agency I'd recommend for any north london families

www.sittingprettybabysitters.co.uk/index.html

Oh, and that's cash in hand rather than through taxes :)