Londoners, how much do you pay your live-out nanny? Help me decide if I should give our nanny a raise.

[AubergineKenobi]

How much do you pay your London nanny net (or gross if you know that figure)? How much have you raised their salary each year? Do you decalre every penny you pay them?

It would be really helpful to know how other London nanny employers pay their nannies as ours is asking for a significant raise and we do not think we can afford it. We might have to say no but there is no point in doing that if all other nannies are going to ask the same.

Our nanny is live-out. She works 8.30am to 6.30pm Mon - Thurs. She has 9 weeks paid leave each year (a big perk I would think, although all leave is in school holidays). We have two children, the youngest is in nursery 9-12 each day so the nanny has three hours when she is paid but does not have a lot to do (cleaning the childrens' rooms etc but nothing else).

When she started with us just under 3 years ago we agreed £10 per hour net and we decalred it all and paid her tax and NI. At her two annual reviews since then we have given her £200 bonus and offered her £15 more a week (not declared, so she now gets £30 a week cash-in-hand). This means she gets just under £11 an hour net. She has asked for a raise to £12 an hour.

Is she asking too much? Her job is actually easier now due to youngest going to morning nursery. Could we easily find another nanny eager to work £10 an hour net? Or have nanny's salaries risen considerable in the last 3 years (DH and I have been on a pay freeze since 2009!).

I would start declaring the £30 that she gets cash in hand...

What you are currently paying her sounds incredibly generous to me ESP with such a lot of paid holiday. I think it depends how good she is and what you can afford. If you can afford to go to £12 and she is brilliant then consider paying it but maybe insist she does extra work such as ironing, cooking or cleaning in her freer hours.

Of course I should declare it. Although I have to say that I am one of the only people I know in RL who declares the vast majority of their nanny's pay.

On MN I notice people are evangelical about declaring every penny but many parents in my area seem to take a much more relaxed attidue to tax. This creates an unlevel playing field whereby my nanny perceives me as paying less because she receives less but actually I am paying more but a big chunck goes to the tax man.

Basially I agree I should declare it all. I probably will after the next rise. But by doing so I will be even less able to give the nanny the raise she wants.

My live out nanny is on £8.70 net ph but I wasn't sure whether you included in the £10ph net the holidays and averaged it out across all that time or not.

She works 8.30 - 5.30, has 4 weeks holiday and has a 2 year old to look after all day and a school age child to look after post school. She also does some cleaning for me.

I think your nanny is having a laugh, tbh.

She is paid for all her holidays. Full pay. So there is no averaging to be done.

Do you both live in london Margo and Whirli? If so it is so refreshing to hear I am actually paying generously.

Blimey she's well paid!

We declare almost all of ours - except for the odd bit of change for parking/petrol. I don't keep track!
We pay roughly £8.30 net, have a 2 year old and she gets the min holiday although to be honest we give her more than that if she needs it. Works 8-6 and only cleans for ds related stuff.

In nw6 London, I pay £10/hour net my nanny looks after three children, although she doesn't have them all all of the time.

I don't declare babysitting money.

I think your nanny is exceptionally well paid, especially with 9 weeks Paid holiday!

I would be saying no to a pay rise.

she is well paid - 9 weeks paid leave is an enormous perk and she's pretty lucky. We live in London - our nanny has been with us for just under 6 years, looks after DS1 who is at school and DS2 who is at home and her pay works out as £8.50 an hour net. She works 7.30 to 7, 4 weeks holiday a year (though in practice we give her 5). We pay cash in hand for ad hoc babysitting and the occasional discretionary bonus but otherwise everythign is put through the pay roll and taxed.

Yes we are in central London. Your nanny is very well paid! Can't believe she wants more given all those holidays.

Is she English? I found English nannies had inflated expecations of their role and wanted to be doing heuristic play but turned their noses up at loading the dishwasher. If I was a SAHM I would not be doing heuristic play (whatever that is) but would be loading the dishwasher as and when.

My very wealthy friends pay a lot more for their nanny but they want that sort of nanny (don't know why). I wanted a lovely lady at home to care for my kids and keep the home fires burning and that's what I've got. I wouldn't rely on her to, I don't know, tackle a complaint at school or take the DCs to the doctor if I needed to fight for treatment - she's not that sort of person. But she is absolutely lovely and sweet and it works for us. I'm actually hoping to keep her when my son goes to full time school - not sure how we'll work it but somehow.

and yes I declare everything and agree with you that most don't, understandably.

We pay our live our nanny £8 net an hour to look after my nearly 3 yr old ds - or my 8 month dd (but never together). I'm going back to work next month and she will start looking after both of them. We have agreed we will pay her £10 an hour net. DS will be starting at nursery pre-school in the mornings but she will have both of them together for half of the days she looks after them.

I think £10 an hour is about right for where we live (SW London) but I know friends on other parts of the country think I'm mad for paying this. My cleaner is paid the same, and I know which job I think is harder.

Family I worked for paid their live out nanny £10/hr GROSS, that is 2011 in SW15. That was apparently the norm in the area, eventhough considered expensive.
Did you agree the salary in gross or net? If you agreed it in net /which is not a good idea as you can read elswhere on MN/ perhaps she might not fully realise that her salary is the gross figure? Maybe if she had her gross figures if would make her feel she is earning more? Just a thought.

PS: Our agreement is that she doesn't get paid for holiday but there are lots of occasions where she can start late/finish early or not come at all depending on the working hours of me/dh.

Ours is a nanny and cleaner in one and we pay her £10 an hour gross, she is registered as self-employed so she then needs to declare her income and pay her tax.

MrTumbles
As an employer your nanny is entitled to paid holidays.

MrTumble - that's a nice pay rise, going from £8-£10 ph net, but your nanny is missing out on £2,800 a year that she is legally entitled to for 5.6 weeks paid holiday.

• sorry, should have said - presuming a 50 hour week

I think it's generous pay. I pay mine £13 gross (it was £12 gross before she got Ofsted reg) which works out about £11.5 net, but then she only does 21 hours a week and she is available for the odd extra hours and full holidays, which is valuable to us.

If you're paying 40 hours a week, plus 9 weeks paid leave, then I think you will have no problems in finding someone happy with 10 hour net. You don't particularly sound happy with your nanny... is pay the only issue?

Is she a native English speaker? I think they tend to want more than non-native speakers, I guess because some people would value that and pay more for it.

I think there are lots of nannies on here hence strict tones against tax evasion. In real life, of the 15 or so employers I've known, only 3 (including me) pay tax, NI and for holidays, which is shameful - although I have also known some nannies to ask for cash in hand so that they can continue to receive their benefits.

Yes she is a native english speaker. And she has quite a few years experience so that probably adds to the amount she can charge. She is a good nanny. The children adore her. Her and I have had our moments when we have disagreed (mainly about money and about giving the children sweets) but generally we get on well. She is good about things like emptying the dishwasher and leaving the place pretty tidy.

I am genuinely confused about why she thinkgs £12 net is the going rate but this thread suggests it really is not. I do not think she is trying it on, she really believes that is the amount most nannies are paid.

FWIW I think actual "going rate" for a nanny is difficult to find out because
(a) agencies tend to inflate, because their fees are usually tied to nannies' earnings;
(b) many nannies don't understand gross/net and so pass on inaccurate information about their actual earnings to other nannies;
(c) there is a periodic survey by nannytax on nanny pay, but not all employers use payroll agencies in the first place so the figures tend to be skewed to the higher earners;
(d) it's in your nanny's interest to claim that everyone else is on a higher rate; and
(e) many employers don't like to admit they are not paying tax, so they give out incorrect information about how much they pay.

Last year I was paying £10 phr net (SW London)
I don't think salaries have risen so I think she's trying it on

born and nbee yes I know but that's what she said she wanted, not what we decreed. She works mainly at another place and has holiday pay there but because I have helped support her two dcs in the evenings for various exams for no pay, that is what she wanted.

That is a staggering amount to pay when 9 weeks hol are paid!! Stick to your guns or look elsewhere. There are plenty of truly excellent nannies out there who won't take the p*ss (and I include English nannies in that too).

We pay our nanny £ 9.50 an hour net plus her tax and Ni and 6 weeks paid holidays. We live in NE London. We interviewed 6 months ago and all the candidates asked for £10 per hour bar none. Some wanted tax paid some didnt. We managed to negotiate 9.50 as she only looks after our 1 year old all day and school runs plus holiday cover for 7 year old. She works 8 to 6 three days. She is lovely with the kids and will keep things reasonably tidy. I decided I would rather have a lovely intelligent person who I trust and get on with than someone who would clean the cooker! If you get both o think you are very lucky. I think £12 is pushing it only because as everyone has said the going rate is less. Perhaps she thinks you will pay more rather than disrupt your kids care, which is a bit off? Do you like her? Are there other problems?

10nph is going rate in london so I think she is being very cheeky

I think the questions here is
Do you want to keep your nanny?
Can you afford to pay her what she is asking?
If the answer is no to either question you should start looking for a new nanny as you are going to have one piss off/looking for a new job nanny on your hands .
If is the just that you can afford and you want to keep nanny you going to have a very frank talk with her.