Rates of Pay - central London nanny - please help!

[Holly29]

Am about to offer my first nanny job, but what is a reasonable net salary? I have one 5 month old, I live in central London, hours would be 8am to 6pm - 5 days a week. just nursery duties. The nanny we like currently gets £500 net which seems extortionate...!
please do tell...

That is definitely in extortionate category, if it is live-in.

If live out... come to think of it is still exptortionate, especially in net terms.

It's live out!

Well, I wouldn't pay that rate. But you might be wealthier than I am. £500 net equates to what... about £40000 a year. That's a lot in my book. You can definitely get a nanny for less money. But, I don't know, you might be happy to pay that much for top notch care. And for that price, you should get mary poppins in the flesh.

Hm, we're definitely not that rich! Can you give ma an idea of how much an average rate would be?

Can I ask where you mean by central london? Are we talking Chelsea or somewhere a bit less glam?

I'm going to let some others come on and give their live-out salary experience. I do employ a nanny but she is live-in and we live in Sunbury. So not really a fair comparison.

ALso, those are pretty standard hours. Mind if I ask why you have chosen a nanny over a childminder?

I pay £320 net pw but mine is live-in.

I think live out would be about £400-450 nett - but i suppose it is a push to pay for accommodation/utilities/food/local tax for £80-130 per week. But i do know of families that pay £500 to £550 net, but i do think it is very expensive.
Have you looked at the option of a nanny share. given you still have only one baby, if you find someone who might want to share a nanny, you could put together a package that will be cheaper for both of you than if you hired a sole one but still a competitive rate for nanny.

1 baby, shortish hours, but Central London, where rates are highest.

Is she very experienced, qualified and well referenced?

I would have a look on a few nanny agency sites, to see how your job compares to others locally.

tbh, you might not get a pleasant surprise, especially if she is v experienced etc.

i live in clapham. so not in the glam bit of central london, being south of the river and all that.

I pay my nanny £24k for shorter hours - 8.30 - 5.30. She's not very qualified but is very sweet. She takes home about 365 pw. Am in central London.

She is experienced and has good references. I live in Islington. Not super glam! Maybe I need to go for someone a bit less qualified/experienced...

£9 an hour net for a qualified, experienced nanny is about standard in central London. Though it can easily be more (I interviewed one ery experienced candidate who wanted £10 an hour net). I moaned about how expensive it was at the time of hiring (privately of course) but now I'm okay with it. Someone doing a professional and responsible job should earn decent money as far as I'm concerned. You can pay less for someone with less experience, or someone who is working here from abroad though, but both those things have obvious drawbacks.

"...or someone who is working here from abroad though, but both those things have obvious drawbacks"

What do you mean by obviousl drawbacks for nannies who come from abroad.

I have a new nanny from Poland and she's fab. I love her. Dream come true. But, she can only stay until September. I guess that's a drawback.

Holly29, if you can offer a live-in position you can save a lot of money. But, I'm still curious about why you don't just use a childminder. I think when you have two young children a nanny becomes good value. But, for one with opretty standard hours, I would probably choose a childminder.

Eleusis - thats exactly the drawback I meant!

Yeah, but English nannies leave too. They go back to school. They fall in love. They catch a travel bug. So many reasons for nannies to move on...

Holly this equates to £10/hr net I think, sounds about right to me. Some girls charge up to £12/hr net now (and men too of course!) if they have experience and references to back up (I'm in central W London prob similar to N1) I am assuming you have checked all her references and they are glowing.

When we were hiring we ended up paying top end and never regretted it. We had special circs in that our daughter has SN and we needed someone with exp in that area, English mother tongue, and more patience than a saint. We decided to bite the financial bullet as it was only for a few years. It is 2 years since she left (I stopped WOTH) and friends, shopkeepers and strangers in the park still ask after her.

IME the relationship between you and nanny is key - if she likes the job and you look after her she is less likely to move on (tho there are no guarantees in this world of course)

Very true of course. I reckon the ideal nanny for not moving on is one who is pretty firmly rooted in the community. DH, kids in school, that kind of thing.. Depends if you mind having someone a bit older I suppose.

And yes, Sinclair is right - a good relationship is crucial! Its like in any job, you want to get on with the people you work with, get treated decently (which is where the pay thing comes in!) and generally enjoy your job..

If it is of any help, here are some Nanny Jobs on offer in Islington:
1 baby, 8am-7pm M-F, £450-550npw
1 baby, 8am-6.15pm M-F, £450npw
1 baby, 8am-6pm M-F, £400-450npw
2 under 4's, 8am-7pm M-F, £450-475
1 baby, 8am-6pm M-F, upto £450

Islington Childminder Vacancies List (20 Feb 2008) - Typical Rates, £40 per day, £6ph, £7ph, £120 per week, £150 per week.

Holy Moly I should go back to London!!!! Pay rates for nannies have gone up HUGELY since I left 2 years ago....

Bloody hell - I should give up my job and become a nanny! 40k for looking after kids? No deadlines, no presentations, no budgets to manage, no appraisals to write - just a baby to coo at. Talk about money for old rope. Sorry I do appreciate it's hard work but I do think that's ridiculous

As a nanny, I actually agree that those salaries are high. It does seem a little strange, but I expect housing in the area is also high cost - a live-out nanny would need somewhere to live and families I find often don't want a nanny to commute very far, as starting on time is v.important.

tbh if you might earn even more in Little Venice or Belgravia

Nick's lists is about average for zone2-3 imo.

I'm giving some thought to going back to full time nannying myself now...

Its crazy isn't it. But then I don't earn anywhere near those figures where I am, more money would be nice but I would rather be happy than rich

Quite... I grew up in London. Don't want to go back, don't think I could stand living in London these days. I did venture into South East London area a couple of months back, driving was a nightmare!

Can I just point out that, whilst I'm not arguing that nannying isn't well paid, the figures quoted aren't for a 37.5 hour week.

When I was a full time nanny I earnt about 50% more than a friend who was a nurse, for about 70% more hours.

(Oh Christ, I wouldn't work or drive in zone 1 for all the chocolate in the Cadbury factory!)