Paying a nanny for overtime / babysitting

[girasol]

Hello, I'm about to employ my first nanny. I'm possibly the only person in the country who is insisting that any additional hours/babysitting be paid through payroll and subject to tax (rather than cash in hand) so maybe I'll get no replies, but here goes....

We've agreed to pay our nanny monthly in arrears, but until she's actually worked the last day of the month we won't know how many hours to pay her for that month (as we may sometimes be back late from work and need her to stay a bit later, as well as the odd night of babysitting). I don't know how to make sure she gets paid on time for everything, if I wait until the end of the last working day apparently I can call up nannytax and tell them her hours and they can instantly tell me how much to pay. But if it's after close of business she won't then get paid until the next working day, which may not be until after the weekend if the last working day is on a Friday.

The only other thing I can think of is to pay her her normal salary for that month and then to include any overtime/babysitting hours in the next month's pay, but that could leave her waiting almost 2 months to be paid for extra hours (eg if she babysat on 1 June, she wouldn't get paid for it until the end of July) which also seems unfair.

Has anyone grappled with this too? Or am I really alone in doing this by the book? Thanks!

normally you get paid your salary at the end of the working month as you have an agreed amount of hours worked.

as for overtime, we have a cut off date - any overtime claimed on or before the 16th are paid the same month on the last day of the month but anything put in after that date are paid the following month.

We pay overtime through the books too. Our nanny who had 25 years experience said that we were the first family who had done this! We also have a cut off date for babysitting hours, which is seven days before the end of the month. So the most she is waiting for the babysitting hours worked to be paid is five weeks.

You should pay her her monthly wage based on her normal working hours (you should still pay her even if you let her leave early.. although I'm sure you know that :) )
Then yes I would include June's overtime in July's pay packet.

I would have a cut off date for adding overtime to the current months salary, such as 15th/20th. Then that gives time for payslip to be processed and time for you to transfer the money.
Then any overtime following that date is added to the following months pay.

Thanks - I'd not thought of having a cut-off date, but that sounds like a good solution.

If she babysits for you on, say, the 20th, you can always give her the money that night as a loan, to be repaid by deduction from her wages the following month.

At my work the cut off is a week before payday. So if I'm paid on the 8th of June it's for all hours worked until 1st June. Alternatively you could pay her her contracted hours every month and be a whole month behind for overtime. So all extra hours in June e are paid at end of July.

Why not call nannytax on the Thursday/Friday am of last working week

If they can instantly tell you what you need to pay then all you need to do is a bank transfer for the amount and give her payslip following Monday /email it to her

Which means would only be a possibly one /two days owed if then late /working overtime thur /fri and wasn't planned

If going to be a lot of overtime then maybe adjust her hours and pay to keep in line

I pay it through the books too! If I have asked her in advance to do something at the end of the month then I will estimate it to put through the payroll and true up the next month. If it is last minute she knows she has to wait. I always agree her hours with her before the payroll is run so she knows the cut off. She prefers it this way so she gets paid at the end of the month (28th or thereabouts) rather than being exact and not beings is till around 3rd.

I pay overtime via Nannytax. I don't have a specific cut off date but normally get overtime included up to about the 23rd - they normally can do a New payslip in a working day.

If I know I have overtime booked for the end of the month I have also included the lower end of why I think it might be (eg if I think we might be back between 11 and 12 I would calculate to 11) and top up the following month if more needed.