My Nanny thought her salary was net and not gross so now she wants a rise

[PanickyAnniky]

I've just hired a Nanny to look after 8 month old DD and she's just finished her 3rd week with us. I stated 400 pounds per week in the advert, but my Nanny has just said that she hadn't realised she would have to pay tax etc on that money and that she wants me to give her 400 pounds after tax. I suppose I should have said 400 gross for super clarity, but with every job I have ever gone for myself I've always assumed the salary was gross and that I would have to pay tax. Has anyone else come across this and if so, what did they do?

My Nanny is working 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, so she is doing long days, but all this was clearly gone through in the interview. I am also offering 28 holiday days per year, 8 pound an hour for extra time (babysitting, weekends etc) and a 1000 bonus after a year. Does this sound reasonable?

Where do you live? Sounds reasonable to me but can't find my calculator to work out the monthly rate. Have you given her a contract? Agree assumption is gross for me but don't know about nannies-mine started on an hourly rate.

400 NET is a fair wage plus you pay the tax/ ni

it should come to 580 GROSS

Found calculator-that's a good rate imo.Well above the maximum pay for simplified deduction scheme.
Don't forget your DD will be asleep a lot of the time!
Do you do her tax and NI for her or pay her gross?

That is a significant difference in pay - blimey! Poor you.

I'm not surprised you made those assumptions - esp if it's your first nanny - but nanny jobs do tend to be quoted net it seems.

What does her contract say? If she just didn't read it properly...well, that's her look out.

Why on earth should nanny jobs be quoted net? I've never heard of that elsewhere. Partly cos it depends on your situation as to how much you're taxed.

PA I hope you are a squillionaire then to pay that much!
That's over £30 -sorry but that's just not on. My Practice Nurses and receptionists would love to earn that much.

£8/hr whareabouts are you if in London that would be cheap gross net not really cheap, what does contract say?
Could you nannyshare to bring down costs?

What does her contract say? Do you want to keep her at a higher rate? 9-7 is not long for London nanny hours ime.

it's very common practice for nanny jobs to be advertised as net so not suprising that she made this assumption. but it should have been explicit in her contract.

not sure how you'll get round this one - you'll just have to reach some amicable agreement.

you do realise that it is the employer's responsibility to pay the tax and ni? as an amployer you have to pay your employee their net salary and the inland revenue the tax and ni. as far as the inland revenue are concerned the amount you give her is net - and they will pursue you not her for any tax.

There was an interesting thread about the net/gross debate.

Ultimately what's said in the contract goes (and that should be gross) so it's really your nanny's lookout.

our nanny does - 8 till 8 plus one babysitting a week

400 net for her - we pay on top her tax and ni

We are in sunny London.

10 hour days is fairly normal for a nanny. So £400 is about £8 gross.

Discussing wages is so difficult, because it depends on location, age and experience of nanny, experience of sole charge the same age as your DCs, qualified or not, driver or not, any additional benefits you're offering.

You offered the job on the wage you stated and she took it. If it's not stated as net in contract then it's presumed to be gross.

At 400 gross per week your nanny is on a better hourly rate than I get - and I do the same number of hours per week, and care for 3 children (sometimes 4, eldest is at boarding school). {hmm, perhaps time to look for a better paid job}

Salary should be in the contract... does it say £400 per week gross there?

As a nanny, I work in Gross terms... but I may be unusual in that, as lots of nanny agencies still advertise jobs with NET rates.

The salary should have been discussed at some point, it no doubt was. But there seems to be a miss communication somewhere. What are your options? Refuse the payrise - nanny may leave. Give the payrise - may not be possible, as you had budgeted for 400 gross.
When you interviewed, were there other suitable candidates... if your nanny was to leave, could you get in touch with them to see if they want the job?

ours is on about £10 gross per hour / £7.90 net (London). including her bonus yours works out at about £8.40 gross - depends on where you are and her experience and qualifications - and, ultimately, whether she's willing to accept it, as to whether it's reasonable or not.

nannynick I think your employers have a great deal!I just wonder sometimes whether nannies say 'I want £10/hr' and employers say 'net or gross' and the nanny fires back net thinking if they asked they must be expecting to pay more £!
Just a thought. I would say hatwoman is about right from what we've been quoted.

I pay £80p/day net for similar hours - in London. This was around the going rate about a year ago.

I would agree, around £10 per hour gross for London area would be typical.
Alas me on the Surrey/Berkshire border doesn't get that much but I don't have to battle with London traffic either, and can go for walks in the countryside

Thank you so much for all the replies/thoughts. The contract says 400 pounds, but again doesn't specify net or gross - it looks like I have made a real mistake not being clearer.

I was planning to pay her tax and NI (via my accountant) but that wasn't going to start until 2 weeks time when they've got all their end of year accounts out of the way.

It also sounds like I should be paying her a bit more as we do live in London. She is not very experienced as this is her first Nanny job but she has worked as an aupair and a childminder previously. She is a bit lacking in confidence and is not the most lively of characters, but she is warming up and most importantly is kind and bonding well with DD. I would like to give her longer to settle in and grow with us - the contract gives me a 3 month probationary period.

Why don't you suggest £400 a week net, pay her tax and NI and lose the bonus Panicky?

totally clueless here no doubt having neither been or hired a nanny, but I think that's a hell of a big salary..........it's more than I used to get pa as a management accountant (not London)

Oh wisteria some nannies work super hard some are clearly taking the piss (the ones wiht no qualies who only want to look after 1 baby and want a huge salary for doing so!) I think like lots of people some nannies salarys have shot up recently and it's still going on we looked 10 months ago and even now people are asking for significantly more. Have you seen how much teachers earn (I'm talking about the ones featured in the Times and FT a few months ago).

God yes, no doubt they do work super hard but I had no idea that the salaries had reached those levels - when I was younger it was a vocational thing which on the whole was fairly badly paid but with nice perks, quite often.

Hope they're Norland trained at that rate anyway

I often put in 50+hour weeks though.

I would be in danger of paying my nanny more than I earn, that truely would be the time to kick back and let you lot pay my bills

I don't think nannies work superhard.

btw panickyanniky - one option that might help you is to get her registered to accept childcare vouchers (if your employer does them). You and dh/p can both get paid a portion of your salary in child care vouchers which you then use to pay her. there's a tax advantage - can't remember the exact details - but it does bring the cost down a bit - not a lot but it helps. some info here - but google for more

if it's your nanny's first nanny job then she could expect less. we were in the same situation when ours started - she'd been an au pair for a while (2 or 3 years iirc) but hadn;t done a nanny job - she's on £10 gross now she has a couple of years experience