How/when to broach question of pay in nanny interviews?

[RooTwo]

I'm going to start interviewing nannies soon but am a total novice at this, never having had one before. We're interviewing to find one for our three children and really can't afford to pay more than £10 an hour net so around £12 gross (this is for a three day a week position). I'm wondering what the best way is to broach the question of pay - I hadn't specified anything in my ad and no one has mentioned it yet either. Should I be firm and say this is what we'll pay, or is it best to ask them what their salary expectations are ...?

On another note, is £10 an hour about right when you have three children in your care? Do nannies get more depending on the amount of children? Though ours will only have one for most of the day as the bigger two are at school ...

You need to sort this before the interview otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time. You need to specify pay in the ad and you need to ask them what their salary expectations are when they reply. Only interview people that are willing to work for what you're offering. £12 gross is about the going rate so you shouldn't have too much trouble. Make sure you agree a gross wage to put in the contract.

Nannies are paid per family and not per child (although a family with one child may be able to offer slightly less than a family with 5 children, for example).

OK thanks Outraged. So far I've advertised on Gumtree where no one seems to specify pay. But you have a point that I ought to clarify it before I meet them, not least to avoid scenario of meeting our Mary Poppins but she being wildly out of our price bracket.

Number of children is not really relevant. It is more about what your local market is offering - if other employers in the area are offering a lot more, then nanny may well want more. Someone with a lot of experience may want more, than someone with little to no prior experience but what someone want's is not that relevant... it's what you can afford to pay. If you can't afford to pay more than 12 gross, then don't offer more than 12 gross.

I say to specify pay in adverts, or at least a range. Surprised it has not come up in the initial contact people have made with you, it would be a very early on question I would ask, as waste of my time meeting with people who won't pay a salary that is enough to pay my bills.

You could ask what their salary expectation is and tell them the figure you had in mind.

A lot of people on Gumtree are lunatics/timewasters and are offering ridiculously low wages, that's why they don't put salary in the ad. Problem is most experienced nannies know this and many don't bother responding to ads where no salary is mentioned so you may be losing out on the best candidates before you even get to the applications stage.

Agree with Outraged. Lots on gumtree want a nanny for an au pair/mother's help wage, so if an ad doesn't specify pay I don't apply. Some will ask you for a cv and a salary expectation - I have replied to a couple of these to be met with the response "we were expecting to pay half that, are you still interested?" !!! To be honest, gumtree is the last place I look these days and my last couple of positions have been through nannyjob.co.uk and childcare.co.uk (nanny with 25+ years of experience)

agree with outraged, if no salary quoted i assume that thwy will pay peanuts and wont bother replying to their ad

i need a certain amount to live off to pay bills etc so if the job cant or wont pay it then no point in me going and wasting both our times, so i always ask about the salary upfront before i meet for an interview

what you are offering is normal, possibly over the going rate depending on the area you are in, so sure you will find someone

and def quote gross esp as only 3 days, nanny may have another job 2 days a week and you may get a HUGE tax bill if you dont do gross

As a few people have mentioned Gumtree I just thought I'd share my favourite nanny ad I've ever seen on there;
'Nice family looking for live in help with children. Pocket money depends on experience. Please call for more details.'

Even if you didn't mention pay I'm sure your ad was 100x better than this RooTwo!

Our as mentioned pay but said it was negotiable. I asked in the first interview whether they were happy with the pay/holiday in the ad so there were no surprises later on (and then went for the most expensive one who wanted most hols, obvs ).

There were still some negotiations in writing the contract, but because the big stuff was sorted up front nothing too stressful (in retrospect!)

Ad, not as!!!

Put in the ad. Either specify gross, or net with restrictions e.g. £10 per hour net assuming sole employer or split tax code. Gross is better.

Please specify a gross salary or hourly rate. There are various different issues with net pay agreements relating to the Nannyâ??s tax code and circumstances and so often parents aren't aware of them until it's too late and they are having to pay lots more for their nanny than they were expecting.

The main issues are:

Outstanding tax owing: The Employer has agreed to pay the Nanny a set amount each payday. The employer is therefore liable for any underpaid tax the nanny has incurred during the current tax year outside of their employment (or indeed for a previous tax year if underpayments are to be made from lowering the nannyâ??s taxable allowance so that s/he effectively pays more tax).

Tax refunds: On a net pay arrangement, the total amount of tax being paid over to HMRC is still being deducted from the Employeeâ??s True Gross pay. Often, in instances where tax refunds are generated the Employer sees the money as owing back to them but technically the tax rebate should be refunded to the Nanny, not the Employer. This can cause major problems between the Nanny and employer.

Tax code errors and amendments: Say a Nanny brings in a P45 from her/his previous Employer with â??BRâ?? or a low tax code (for example if she previously had 2 jobs.) Unless the full tax allowance is issued the PAYE payments will be calculated using higher amounts of tax (which in turn creates higher levels of National Insurance contributions due too). Any over paid tax should be refunded to the Nanny but any overpaid National Insurance can not be claimed back.

There can also be issues where tax codes are on a month 1 basis (where previous earnings and tax that has already been paid is not taken into account). Again, any overpaid tax should be paid back to the nanny but any National Insurance that has been calculated may have been much lower had a cumulative code been in place in previous calculations. This National Insurance can not be claimed back.

The Employer could also be liable to pay student loans, court orders etc on behalf of the nanny. Net pay arrangements just aren't worth it!

Have a play with Mr. Anchovy's calculator: www.mranchovy.com/calc/paye201415 and work out what you can afford but do bare in mind your Nanny might not have the "normal" tax code of 1000L which the calculations are based on.

Hope that helps!