Do nannies have to be paid an hourly rate?

[DettolElephant]

I've heard it's illegal to pay nannies a set salary which doesn't allow for overtime worked etc. Is this true? I've looked on the net but can't find anything to support it.

You have to pay the minimum wage so if on a salary the salary divided by hours has to be at least minimum. If doing extra hours and this means drop below minimum need to pay over time.

Surely it depends on your contract? If you're working past your set hours then you should be paid extra. This will need to be discussed with your employers.

No, nannies can be salaried. It used to be fairly common for full-time nannies to be salaried and part-timers were usually hourly.

Depends on the country they are working in as labour laws vary.

In the UK a nanny is just like any other employee, they are paid an annual salary which can be broken down in to an hourly unit so that calculations can be done for purposes of National Minimum Wage compliance, Sick Pay, Redundancy Pay, that sort of thing. Many nanny contracts will include some provision for overtime pay, however in my experience overtime is often dealt with by having time off in lieu.

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4249
Many nanny jobs do have fixed hours of work, so my interpretation of what ACAS has written (see link) is that any additional hours beyond those in the contract would be classed as overtime. It might be compulsory overtime, if a parent is delayed getting home the nanny can not leave the children home alone. Some might be voluntary overtime - nanny stays later than usual.

As ever with many things to do with nannies, refer to the written statement of employment particulars (what many refer to as the contract).

It's absolutely fine to set a salary for a stated number of hours per week providing it equates to at least the minimum hourly wage rate or more depending on the Nanny's age.

You should then either pay any hours over the stated amount as overtime (or as Nick mentioned, offer time off in lieu). Which ever of the arrangement is preferred, it should be referred to in the Nanny's contract.
Where a nanny is not paid a set salary but is paid for the total number of hours worked each month, that needs to be shown on the payslip as the total hours and the rate they are paid at.
Hope that helps. :-)