Travelling with nanny

[jmap81]

I am planning on taking my nanny to a work meeting. We would be in an apartment and I would do overnights, bedtime etc. she would need to then babysit while I go for dinner with colleagues. But would be off duty overnight. Obviously I need to pay her babysitting hours and I am guessing something for the inconvenience for being away from home. This is UK travel. Does anyone have any experience of this?

I agree you should offer something for the inconvenience of being away from home on top of the hours she will actually be working - but given the nanny won't be on duty overnight, half an hourly rate overnight feels quite high and I don't get the logic of it being linked to overnight if the nanny isn't actually in charge overnight.

At that point, it might work out better just to leave the child and nanny at home especially if you would be paying extra for an apartment but work would pay for a hotel room for you.

The nanny can't see family, go to any classes she usually goes to, socialise with friends, sort out her children (if she has any), get chores done at home etc etc. It's not a holiday for her.

No one said it was a holiday.

Everyone on this thread agrees she should be paid something extra because of this - it's just the exact amount that is in question.

yes but the OP wants to pay 'something for the inconvenience' which rather makes it sound like a trivial amount, and resents doing so as she works overtime for free.

Time and a half is what my friend used to pay her nanny for travel hours.

Travel hours included the nights.

So 150% of the hourly rate for every hour, 24 hours daily for however long the trip lasted.

'Trip duration' was defined as time of arrival in the morning at the house with bag packed to time of return at the house, rounded to nearest hour.

I am very surprised that a rate and agreed calculation formula was not agreed on signing. As an employer it may put you in a precarious position as there is nothing set out in the contract and as can be seen from the posts here there is no established sector practice.

@Clymene lots of people who are not on high rates travel for work and they don't get paid extra. If it's in the contract then they just get paid as normal. Not only super high flying executives travel for work

@monitor1 as I just said, lots and lots of people on normal pay travel for work. Why do people think only super high flying executives travel for work? Nanny's can be paid £50-70k a year (much higher in sine circumstances). That's much more than many other people who travel in the course if their work. People need to stop thinking of nannies as little servants. They are skilled well paid employees.

But the only reason she is sleeping in a hotel room, without access to all her home comforts and her usual routine and possibly her own family (yes, some nannies have children of their own) is because the OP has required her to go. She needs to be compensated for the inconvenience of that.

Before Covid a retired friend of mine had a job where she slept overnight at a local care home several nights a week. There was a requirement for three people to be available overnight in case of emergency and she was there to make up the number. She was paid £40 a night to arrive by 9.30pm and sleep in her own room. She was only once woken to assist and she got an extra £10 for being woken. Just mentioning that as an indication that people get paid for being asleep when not at home.

But the person you quoted suggests £75 as a bonus/inconvenience payment - almost twice what your friend got for a sleep in shift where she could be woken for an emergency whereas the OP is planning to deal with any emergency. £75 seems pretty reasonable to me - what figure did you have in mind?

My nanny travels with me for work and personal travel. I have 3 children and I’m in a senior role at work.

You need to put a lot more thought into the schedule. So, trip to London in March, dates are set and my work schedule is 90% there. I have put together a plan of what the children will do each day. I’m also staying in a hotel with a pool because if the weather is miserable, it’s a great activity for my children now they are proficient swimmers.

She has a card to pay for breakfast, lunch and dinner, treats for the children and other such incidentals. I buy snacks when I arrive. The nanny pays for nothing while she is on the trip. All transport, food, hotel, insurance etc is paid for by me.

When it comes down to pay, I keep her hours to 12/day. I work 6am to 10pm, the kids get up at 7/8, they go down 7-9pm. I hire a hotel sitter for 6pm+. The nanny has from 6pm to go out and experience the city for herself, or do something else, such as spend the evening in her bedroom.

I pay her 12 hours for her time and I pay her half rate at night. It’s not cheap and I let the guys know because I don’t think they appreciate their wives.

Of course we're skilled and often well paid, but it is a job that is paid hourly. The more hours you work, the more you're paid. It's really that simple. Other jobs are different, that's life.

I wouldn't expect someone on £50 - 75k per year to have to travel routinely without getting some sort of recompense. I wouldn't do it for that sort of money.

I was responding particularly to those who were saying that no one gets paid for the hours they're asleep, but actually, the proposal to pay their ordinary daily rate and then £75 on top may or may not come out roughly similar. If the nanny normally works 8am to 5.30pm, but will be required to look after the children from around 5.30pm to 10pm, when OP returns from dinner, that's another four hours. I would suggest those extra four hours of babysitting need to be at a premium rate to reflect how many hours she's already put in over the day, plus a sleep-time allowance. So probably more than £75.

@Aintnosupermum you sound a lovely employer

@jmap81 what were you thinking of paying

Thanks everyone for your replies. I didn't expect to be opening a can of worms here. Clearly this is a sensitive topic with differing views and various parties represented on this thread. I have to take my child away with me for various reasons. My salary is not relevant here (assumptions that I have lots of cash to spare are wildly wrong). The bottom line is I want to do the right thing, be fair, treat my nanny fairly. I realise it's a murky area. But I am in the red each month despite living modestly because of my personal situation so I have to find the right balance of being fair, generous where I can be but not setting up the wrong precedent. I will of course be thinking about how I enable the nanny to have breaks, cover all expenses etc. I am not ready to share my "proposal" yet and plan to do it in conversation with my nanny. It seems like whatever I say here will be critiqued! There seems to be so much emotion about nanny treatment, in general, which I have unearthed by my post.

Maybe ask nanny to write down what she would like

You write down what you would like to pay as well

if less And try and find an inbetween

In the end your nanny has to be happy with it or she may end up leaving if travelling is a regular thing

@Blondeshavemorefun I am sunk without childcare. Two of my children have ASD/ADHD. My third child needs their mummy cuddles too. My nanny is the most important resource/asset in my life and it’s what I spend the most on. I drive a boring car, live modestly and vacation for me is working in bed with cameras off!

The other thing to point out, wages are ridiculous low for middle and senior management in the UK. I work for an American company, as an American (despite being English), from their American office. Hell will freeze over before I go full time in the UK. I wouldn’t make enough to pay my nanny. It’s awful that it is this way, but there needs to be serious reform around childcare costs and how that all works with people’s tax paid.

Currently, if I was in the UK, I’d be paying 65% tax on my income if you included the NI and pension contributions I have to pay for the nanny. That is just not sustainable and it’s ridiculous that someone with my sort of income, for the hours that I work (12-14 hrs a day) even as a lone parent, can’t make it work.

I think people don’t realize how much taxes are paid by those earning over £60k a year and how many hours they have to work to earn that money. I work over 100hrs most weeks and I’m lucky I’m remunerated for it. So many people are not paid fairly for the hours worked.

I have no 'nanny emotion' at all, never had one, will never need one. I just think people who work for many hours a day need to be adequately recompensed. I take the line that if someone can't just walk out of the house/ hotel and go off and do their own thing then they're working, even if they're watching TV. If she's a good nanny, OP, you'll know how valuable she is to you.

Perhaps you could contact a couple of agencies saying you are looking for a nanny prepared to travel with you for business and asking what hours and pay would they expect? I'm sorry to hear of your difficult personal circumstances, I know times are hard for all sorts of people.

@Aintnosupermum I've always said that childcare should be take off a salary as an expense - then taxes on the remainder

So isa pays well and good tax - but isn't it bad for maternity and back at work /not paid after 6w or has that changed

Tho for every good there has to be a payoff iyswim

Of course the OP doesn't get paid extra for overnight travel. I've done it a lot. But it was in my contract and it will be in the OP's. So either the OP tells her employer she can't do the travel since she had a baby or she finds another job. The nanny shouldn't be shortchanged.

@Clymene Of course the OP doesn't get paid extra for overnight travel. I've done it a lot. But it was in my contract and it will be in the OP's.
It was in the nanny's contract also

Companies that send people away on business for a week don't pay them for every hour they are away from home, only the hours they work

No, but they are usually paying far more than a nanny is, with overnight travel written into the contract, accommodation AWAY from the 'office' and 'colleagues', all meals and usually some sort of paid evening entertainment.

I would expect to receive a huge pay uplift in OP's nanny's shoes, unless travel and overnights are included in the contract that is a HUUUUGE ask!

Foolishly, the OP didn't put in the nanny contract what she would be paid for travelling. So it's all up for negotiation.

Yes, but the pay wasn't! Hence the need for this thread!

The OP's contract (and yours presumably?) include overnight travel within your annual salary. The OP is paying her nanny for standard hours with the requirement to travel paid on top, but hasn't negotiated how much that will be. Therein lies the problem and the reason for this thread.