Pay for childminders

[girlygirl]

Be honest as a parent who uses a childminder.
Do you think they are worth between £2.50 and £2.75 per hour, or more or less?
Remember their day to day responsibilities, how easy it is looking after someone else's child, the wear and tear on their house, etc.
I am thinking about registering as a childminder in my area as there is a demand, but today I've just found out the hourly pay and I am SHOCKED. I know I can have more than one child but I only wanted 1 or 2 as I feel I can give better care to a small group by myself rather than up to 6!!!But going by the measly hourly rate I think I'll not bother...

[artyjoe]

Just one thing I'd like to add after reading comments regarding hourly rates on this thread...

I will charge £5 per hour from August and if I have 5 children my hourly rate would be £25.

My main question is who cares and why justify it?

The instructor on our ICP course earns over £35,000 a year as a childminder...good for her. She obviously does a fantastic job and an incredibly important one. The most important thing, in my opinion, is the CM earns a salary that she feels she is worth in order to excel in her position as childminder. If you look after 3 children for £8 an hour, on top of your own children, then where is the incentive to NOT put them in front of the TV?

I know rates are relative and as I live on the outskirts of London it may seem a lot of money to say someone in Cardiff, obviously salaries and expenditures are radically different, but in this part of the country, if I had a choice between someone charging £2.50 per hour or £5 per hour, I'd go with the £5 every time if I could afford it...my attitude is you get what you pay for and when it comes to the most precious thing in your life I'd want to know the person looking after my child was well compensated and not resentful of a low salary!

Just my opinion of course

[ssd]

artyjoe, what you said really rings true. I have always believed you get what you pay for, and if I had a childminder I would try to pay her as much as I could ,no matter the going rate, as I believe the effort you put in to a job usually equals how well you feel you are treated both financially and the respect you get.
That's why the low rate sticks in my throat.

Sorry, moaning again!!!

[KatieMac]

A nanny earns her wage and has virtually no expenses (tax & NI-maybe pension).

A childminder has a vast number of expenses in my first year I spent over 10K on being a childminder (all expenses on my self assessment - filled in by a Tax Officer and aproved as normal and necessary)
So I earnt that year -£800 (ie a loss)

This year I might earn as much as £4500 for a 52.5 hr week - (50 weeks a year)
I accept that I chose this as a job - I just wonder at parents priorities. I charge a lot in my area - but I am full, others who charge less have vacancies. Maybe I could charge more....I will gradually as I feel you get what you pay for.

This isn't a whinge btw - just a statement of facts

[uwila]

I don't understand why people are quoting "salary" and "minimum wage" on this thread. These things apply to nannies because they are employees. Childminders, on the other hand, are business owners.

If a childminder is making less money than another childminder in his/her area, perhaps he/she should look into why. I used to have a childminder in Epsom who charges £5/hour and is always full. She works full days, and I once calculated the sums based on the number children, number of hours, and the rate of pay and almost fell off my chair when I realised she takes in about £4000 / month. Everyone pays her in cash, and she reports "some" of it. I don't know how much, but she is no doubt making a healthy income.

I will also say that she is a fantastic childminder. We love her and miss her dearly (we left because we moved and because I wanted a live-in nanny to accommodate my work schedule).

So, I know that Surrey is more expensive, but I still suprised that some of you only charge £2.?? an hour. I wonder if there might be some more services you could offer to your parents (like a friendly newsletter to keep them informed of what their kids are doing, or possibly give them daily reports of progress???)

It seems to me, though, that as a business owner it is up to you to sort out how to market and sell your services for a reasonable profit. Whether that is more kids or additional services, I don't know. But, I do think that parents will pay a bit more for a "better" childminder. For example, the reason I paid £5/hour was because I was working long hours and showing up on time was often something I could not promise. So, we had a deal (up front) that any additional hours would be charged at straight time and at the end of the week she would add up the number of hours I had gone over in total that week and I would settle the extra fees each Friday.

[ssd]

Fair point, Uwila.

It's just that in reality (or at least where I live) if the parents can get a childminder for £2.50 instead of, say, paying me £4 an hour, they will.

It's been proved time and time again

[uwila]

Perhaps you could get together with some other childminder and tell them what you charge. I bet you'd get a few raising their rates. And, also, is there ANYTHING you can do to improve the service? Even if you say buy a disposable camera, and take one picture of eack kid each month and send it home at the end of the month. If the kids are old enough, they could even make a paper frame and say "I love mummy" or something. Parents who work and therefore don't see their kids all day will eat that up. So many working mums feel they just don't get enough of their kids. So every little bit that you can give them of theirs child's day I bet will be worth a little extra money to them. Of course, there will be parent who just point blank can't afford it and must seek the cheapest childcare. But, it's worth a try. And it really won't cost you much money.

[ssd]

thanks for taking the time to post here, Uwila, and also thanks for your suggestions.They are great ideas!

[lisalisa]

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