How much to pay 18 yr old "sort of" au pair / day babysitter

[PantsInWash]

Our two (DS 13 and DD 11) are going to be looked after a lovely 18 year old girl over the summer. She's going to be at home with them for between 5 and 7 hours on each day she's here, for 2, 3 or 4 days a week, depending on my working pattern, her availability & our holiday dates. As the weeks will vary a lot, we've agreed we'll do a sort of pay as you go arrangement rather than a weekly rate (this has all been worked out with her Mum, who is a colleague of mine at work), but DH & I haven't come to any final conclusion about exactly how much to pay her. Her Mum has also suggested that we deduct an amount for lunch from anything we come up with. We live in a small town 30 miles from London.

We were being charged £7 per hour for DD & DS by our CM, who we no longer use. Her hourly rate was £3ph for DS and £4ph for DD. NMW is currently £4.98ph.

Any ideas on what we should pay the 18 year old per hour?

We're expecting her to entertain them if they need it & will provide crafty stuff and games for her to play with them, she can take them to a local park, make lunch with them & cook with DD if DD wants to bake etc. DS will probably be on the computer most of the time or out with his mates. DD will be more high maintenance as she needs something to do.

£6 an hour perhaps. You want it to be a better proposition than another job and you want someone who will do the flexible hours, so paying above NMW may help.

Have they suggested a figure? They may be expecting a figure that is unrealistic, or maybe the opposite.

£30/day

No idea about rate but why would you be deducting lunch from her pay? Fair enough if you are not expecting her to stay with your dcs for lunch but a bit odd otherwise.

I thought the deduction for lunch was odd too - it was her mum's suggestion! think I will ignore...

and dont take away money for food
but tell her what the kids and she can eat
and give her spending money for her and kids
for bus fares , ice creams entrance fees

She's already committed to working for us, even without knowing how much we will pay! but her Mum & I are good friends and I she knows I won't rip her off. We had mentioned £25 per day as a possible, but as the days will range from 3 - 7 hours long, I thought we'd better come up with an hourly rate.

If you are working in an office then you don't get paid for your lunch hour so maybe that is what her mum means. However in a normal office job you are free to go out and do what you want for lunch. You can't do that when you are looking after children. I always paid my CM an hourly rate times number of hours ds was there, I didn't deduct an hour for lunch!

Spending money is a good idea longjane, thanks, I will make sure they have ice cream money etc. They won't be going to anything that costs money I don't think, probably just the local park, free splash park in town, maybe the library. I've just looked at the calendar and it's actually only 10 days over the holidays that she will be with us.

No, it was for the cost of the food bico!

i would think £6-£7 an hour would be ok. don't deduct for lunch hour!!

how do your dc feel about the arrangement? i have a 13 yr old nephew and can't imagine him wanting to do crafts with an 18 yr old girl !!

They are both totally delighted that they don't have to go to the CM any more! They were by far the oldest there &, at 13, DS in particular gritted his teeth whenever he went, but didn't complain to me or make any fuss at all.

DD is definitely looking forward to doing crafty things, and DS? well he is very amenable, will try most things, and although he probably won't join in very much with sticking & modelling, he does enjoy drawing and occasionally creating models, and is willing to play card and board games etc. He'll probably go out a bit too, to see his friends, & read books and play on the Xbox.

I pay my similar 19YO £7/hour. I also provide food and cash for lunch for going out on the odd day here and there.

£7 an hour.

My 17 year old dd does something like this for a family- they have a 9 year old and an 11 year old, and dd is with them from 8.30 to 5. She gets paid what the mother would have to pay the school holiday club- £40 a day.

I'd offer £6 an hour.

I think 6 an an hour would be a fair rate. 5 feels too little, 7 feels generous assuming she has little childcare experience.

Thanks everyone - I think ActionLog sums up my feelings about the rate so I'm going to offer £6 an hour. Very helpful to have mulled it over on MN, as always

I think £6 is fine. I am sure she will be pleased with it.

Hope it all goes well

Thanks BNB - me too!

I agree. I think £6 is fine. I think I would mention it to her mother also before saying it to the girl. See what she says. I know our neighbour asked us to reduce the amount we give to her son for babysitting as she felt we were paying him too much money at his age (16years).

FWIW, now the holidays are over, I can report that the arrangement was a fantastic success! DD and babysitter/au pair got on famously, DS kept himself to himself, but was perfectly happy around them, and went out on his own with mates a fair bit. And I spent less than half what I would have on a CM