Nanny - yearly review and payrise advice please

[rubyslippers]

Nanny has been with us nearly a year and we are doing her review

Broadly we are happy with her - only problems have been her sickness/attendance with 11 days sick in 9 months

Her care of the children is good - she is warm and loving with them and they like her

So, we need to do a review. I have asked her to let me know of courses she would like to do etc

Now, we said her contract her salary would be reviewed yearly but no mention of a rise

Wuld you as a nanny expect one? Of so, how much would you expect? 3 %, 5% ???

Thanks for any advice or tips

with the current financial climate i wouldnt be expecting a huge payrise

what have YOU had as a payrise? (many people havent had a payrise at all)

perhaps 1 - 3%, especially with all those days sick...

Thanks nannyl

I haven't had a pay rise - actually haven't had one in 3 years

In my view 11 sick days is high for a nanny. I doubt I'm the only nanny who posts on here who has had no sick days (at least none that I can recall) in the past year, or possibly even the past 3 years.

If you have paid those sick days in full rather than not paying them, or letting SSP kick in, then that's a bonus in itself for the nanny, those 11 days could well have cost you over £1000 in salary payment.

You haven't had a payrise yourself, so you haven't got any additional money coming in to the family budget. If you have a partner, has your partner had a pay rise in the last year? Has your family finances had more money coming in... as if not, then by giving your nanny a rise, you are worse off.

Given the number of sick days, I wouldn't raise salary on this occasion. However a review in 6 months time might get a raise if during that 6 month period there was no sick leave taken.

Call me mean if you like but I feel that level of sickness is unusual for a nanny. There may well be health related reasons for why your nanny had all those sick days but if they were all sudden (rather than planned - wouldn't be sick days then would they?) it must have inconvenienced you, which could have put your job at risk.

If you can afford a small rise, then go ahead. However if you can't then I feel you have reasons for why a rise isn't possible at this time and that the situation could be reviewed in say 6 months.

I've only had about 5 days off in 16 years of nannying! you should mention the sickness definately.

Thank you both

She has a health issues which is recurring - nothing severe but enough to need a day or so off here and there

She has sick days, 3 months consecutively

We had a big chat a couple of months ago about her sickness as it has put me and DH under huge pressure to cover them - actually it is me who has had to cover them.

In fairness to her she has really picked herself up since then but caused a huge headache at the time

We gave a very generous sick pay in the contract (2 weeks at full pay)

Mistake I think??!

Agree sick days is very high.

Pay rise anything is nice 1-3% due to current climate and if you can't afford then maybe a small cash bonus after a year.

I was a nanny for four years and no sick days during that time. One pay rise after a year of 5%, then subsequent pay rises of 1% each year.

I don't think a payrise should be paid given the number of sick days. Ad hoc sick days are actually frequently harder to cover than a full week of illness.

I had a nanny who had loads of sick days, and then started moaning about how she was entitled to a big pay rise etc, etc. We eventually had to let her go and 5 months later she is still out of work..... It's not a pleasant environment for ANY employees out there at the moment. And nanny positions are based on their employees being in paid employment so it's a bit of a double whammy for the childcare industry, and lots of childcarers are out of work (nannies) or low in numbers (childminders).

If it were me, I would tell her that you haven't had a payrise yourself and can't afford one without some give and take and that her days off sick have cost you in effect 5% in sick pay (because she has been unavailable for 11 out of 232 working days). I'd then tell her that I'd be happy to give her a 5% payrise in exchange for changing her terms and conditions to the effect that any days off sick may be unpaid (other than the SSP element).

Usually I pay nannies in full when they are off sick but I always have the right not to. Given that your nanny has managed to reign in her days off since you spoke about it, I'd be inclined to think that a proposal like this will have the effect of keeping her days off at a minimum.

But I'm in a mean mood at the moment so I may post different advice this afternoon...

no sick days in last 4 years, though had 3 weeks off just over 4years ago due to blood clot in lung

and just had 3 weeks off for bereavement due to dh sadly passing away

but those were extreme circumstances :(

to be having 11 days off in 9 months, thats over 1 a month, thats a lot and sounds like if a reoccurring illness she will be having more days off as well

Mine got the same as me, 0.5% rise. I've put it in the contract - whatever cost of living increase I get, the nanny gets.

Thanks to everyone who has posted

Lots of food for thought - think I will keep any rise in the low side and review in 6 months and then taking into account absences etc

blondes - am so very sorry for your loss

I Would say you'll review in six months with a view to giving a payrise if sickness improves as it's cost you so much already. I've always had ssp in my contracts but my bosses have always paid me as they know i don't take a day off unless i'm about to keel over

I'm facing the same issue in the next month, although without nanny's sickness (thank goodness!) to take into account.

I've not had a pay rise in 3 years so am not in a position to give one. We didn't get bonuses this year because of financial climate so there just isn't any extra as we already pay top salary for our nanny. Fact of life in the current climate and we have done lots for our nanny in the last year (bought her a car, etc) which will just have to make up for it. I recently survived redundancy process so both me and nanny are lucky to have jobs!

Our nanny is brilliant and we really appreciate her so I'm hoping that she will understand that we'd love to be able to give her a pay rise if we could but at the moment it just isn't feasible. I'm sure if you explain to yours she will understand that.