Is this a fair wage?

[shimmymummy]

We're going to be hiring a nanny in January and have found a girl we really like. She is level 3 qualified and currently working in a nursery. She wants to get into nannying but has no nannying experience - by her own admission she has never cooked, or done housework (for children). But everyone has to start somewhere right? We're happy to give her a chance and teach her cooking etc. She's babysat our son quite a few times - he adores her, he will have started school by the time she starts and our baby will be 10months old. She'll look after the baby for two long days and two short days a week and do wrap-around care for our son on the two long days. A total of 40 hours per week.

We worked out our budget and asked her what she would expect - she said take-home of c. £1000 a month. We plan on offering her around 17k gross a year with a payrise after she has developed her nannying skills. This works out as about £1100 per month (net), so a bit more than she asked for. Does this seem a fair wage though? Considering she hadn't any nanny experience. I don't want to be unfair but tbh its about what we can afford right now. We are also going to give what I've been told is a generous holiday entitlement (for 40 hrs) of 22 days + all the bank hols. We live in Maidenhead.

and thats why its easier to use days, i have a friend who works hours like your job, as mum in london 2 days and works from home 2 days, they do holiday as 4 days rather then hours

maybe put in contract x no of weeks holiday but you can always give her extra ie next week dont come in thur as i have day off

the vouchers go in as and when depending on which company you use, so she will be paid in bits - 243 from you, 243 from dh (if both using) then remainder paid by you both so another £700+/- depending on what wage you pay her

Payroll companies do not deal with childcare vouchers. You can write on the payslip how the payment is made, such as 243 via voucher, x via Bank transfer. You control the physical paying of money to your nanny, the voucher company may transfer it direct to the nanny part way through a month. Voucher payments sometimes get delayed, missed, so make sure you know when the payments are being made. I think many voucher providers now do things online, so you can log in and authorise payments.

Nannytax are quite expensive, there are lower cost payroll providers. Look at what each offers and see which meets your needs. PAYEforNannies is a good alternative.

Holiday entitlement in hours - your days are not equal.

With days, someone will always lose out.

If nanny thinks about it, they will take holiday on a Monday and Thursday as those are the longer days.

Nannyj - are you thinking 4 weeks plus bank holidays? If so, it changed quite some years back. It still works for someone doing Mon-Fri but not for a part timer.

You could offer addition unpaid holiday if she wants it.

If you get 45 days holiday from work then in reality you may well give your nanny most of that off, unless you want childfree days to yourself.

Getting holiday entitlement right is useful for the contract. Often what happens is that nannies get more time off than they are contractually allowed, as parents do not want nanny around if they are at home.

Cindy - my fault completely, I am rubbish at calculations. It actuall looks more like 300 hrs holiday.

Perhaps contract could be

Holiday entitlement: 224 hrs. In addition the employee will get all bank holidays that fall on a working day as paid leave.

As mine and DHs vouchers are usually paid by mid month hopefully we could swing it so that she gets paid everything on the second to last working day so it's a bit easier for her to see.

Are you considering NannyTax+

That is a new service where they pay the nanny direct. I wonder how they deal with childcare vouchers for that.

Cindy - you are right re offering extra holiday. I was also thinking of offering "In addition all working days from 24th Dec to 1st Jan will be given as paid leave" as she has already stated she wants that time off each year.

Remove the words: In Addition

Contractually you want to be a set amount of holiday, not something that may vary.

In reality you can give additional paid time off whenever you like.

I would not write the bit about xmas into the contract.

That is an agreement between yourselves which whilst unlikely to change, might at a future date. Really she should put in the leave request each leave year, you then grant it.

You could have an additional sheet to the contract which says, for 2014-2015 holiday year, leave has been granted for: list of dates.

Re Xmas and contract - Can doo, and just provide the hours with in the holiday entitlement. Just thought of doing it this way as it's written into my contract at a big public sector org (that I get 'Christmas Shutdown' 24th-1st as paid leave).

In 2011 we had 9 bank/public holidays. The additional one was the Royal Wedding, which is a public holiday.

That may not happen again for a while but you never know. Queen may die, we may have a new monach. Will that mean a public holiday for the coronation?

In 2018, Boxing Day (a bank holiday) is on a Wednesday, a day your nanny does not work. So that year they would only get 7 Bank holidays.

Christmas Shutdown 24-1 is fine to say. Your organisation is not giving that time off to you as extra to your contractual holiday entitlement, they are telling in advance that they insist you take that time off as part of your entitlement.

I can not imagine you get 45 days holiday, plus the period of 24Dec to 1Jan.

Have no problem with extra bank holidays (as obviously we will get them too) - so nanny can take all bank holidays off on top of the stat leave, if there are an extra couple for any reason so be it.

Thing is I don't want to be in a position whereby she wants to work a bank holiday or work over Xmas - so that's why I was thinking to state those explicitly as on top of the stat leave. At my place of work it's defined as X days holiday All bank holidays, and 6 days Xmas shutdown. Can I not do that?

Sorry if this is a bit dim of me!

Isn't it usual to write into the contract that a % age of holidays are chosen by the nanny and the rest by the employer? Otherwise you could wind up paying 6 weeks holiday plus having to pay her whilst you are on holiday and she's not needed.

Just make sure that if she doesn't work Mondays that if there is a week with a Monday bank holiday whether she will get a day off that week or not so no one is confused.

We did our own tax (I like tax rules and law actually) and it was not hard - which saves money although means you do the admin yourself.

Employer can dictate all holiday. Employees do not have a right to take holiday whenever they like, in the same way they have no right to having bank holidays off.

Some people let nanny choose 1/2 of the holiday dates. That may work fine when children are little but once at school you may want to restrict more when holiday is taken and there may not be enough flexibility to let them have 1/2 of holiday entitlement at their choice.

Try to think of the future, you may not be in the same job as you are now, your childcare needs may be different (though may still be 40 hours per week, just different daily hours/days).

Try to avoid putting things in the contract that may be hard to change later. Easier IMO to keep the contract simple, then agree things as you go along - keep a note of what you agree, use email.

At the look of things, as she does work a Monday in a week where there is a bank holiday Monday, she will get Monday and Wednesday off. Wednesday being her non-working day, so has that off regardless.

Agree with JaneP, tax is not that hard, gets a bit of getting used to doing. These days you can get low cost software to do the payslips, like BrightPay.

Thanks for all your help everyone, really appreciated! If anyone is interested I asked NannyTax+ about how they dealt with childcare vouchers and they just note it on the payslip (ie it's still up to the parent to pay these through to the nanny).

Putting it on the payslip is good. It would be impossible for them to pay that bit direct to the nanny as it comes from elsewhere. Same would happen with the new childcare scheme Government is doing I suspect, though will need to wait until that starts to find out exactly how payments from the 'child' account at NS&I is made.