Nannies: market rates (bit controversial)

[Tanzie]

Having read on another thread ("Paying Nannies when sick") gripes from UK nannies about jobs going to girls from accession countries who will work for less, (and do more in the way of housework), is this not just pushing the market rate down for qualified/experienced nannies?

I am not in UK, but I would look at it as providing more affordable childcare, provided you can find someone trustworthy and reliable. I lived in UK briefly about 4 years ago and a nanny friend of mine was earning GBP 25,000 and got a flat thrown in with it. This is more than I was earning at the time and could never have afforded this sort of money for someone to look after my children.

I am not suggesting slave labour from Central European girls, or paying them an au pair's "pocket money" for what is essentially a nanny job, but paying them a reasonable wage and providing free accommodation means that a lot of people, who could not afford a nanny or nursery fees, will probably be able to get back to work.

Of course, there will always be those who want a Norland nanny and can afford one, but it seems to me that your average Mum would welcome these Central Europeans with open arms...

I'll run and hide now...

beetroot i have to agree with you what is wrong with children playing. school is for learning and i am a nanny so please other nannies don't shoot me as this is probably wrong

beetroot i have to agree with you what is wrong with children playing. school is for learning and i am a nanny so please other nannies don't shoot me as this is probably wrong

can i ask what you mean by improving fine and gross motor skills? What exactly do you do with regards to those areas of development?

Can I just ask, for the parents here who are amploying a euronanny
Does she pay tax and NI or do you pay cash in hand????

Yes, I pay health insurance and everything else.

It's bit off the subject, cronanny. But, yes of course she does. Anything else would be illegal.

How is it off subject, this thread is suppose to be about market rates (so the title says )
I was just wandering, are euronannies cheaper coz they don't pay tax and NI, that's all

Sorry. You are right. It is relevant.

Surely any nanny working in the UK has to pay UK Tax and NI (or more correctly, under UK Law, their employer has to deduct it from their pay).

Nannyisbest-you're not. Mummy is best/Daddy or whatever partner/lover/ etc you have. I know how to fit a car seat, I've spent loads of my lfe in Casualty having diagnosed my kids with whatever ailment and I am shit hot at motor skills. I work bloody hard, have my own business and am proud to be a mum. I won't get into the sanity/insanity arguement about staying at home with the kids. I too hated those days when yet again I did a funny face, or posted that bloody block into that hole but I chose to have kids and having them is a gift not a right. Have them, look after them. Just take a step back for one moment and think about those people who would love kids but can't have them. This is a reply to nannyknowsbest, saying that you don't have to be qualified to be a mum and I've had trainee nannies here from a college and work in a nursery. I wouldn't trust most of those young girls with an egg never mind my kids. I've taught young girlks of 18 who technically know all about Freud, first aid etc etc etc but have only held one baby, or fixed one bottle, because that's all the coursework had time to teach them. One girl I taught had only bathed a dolly and when I asked her to bath my son, a chunky 8 week old, she freaked and said she was scared she'd drop him. Please don't anyone tell me, ever, that I'm ony a mum and I don't have the relevant childcare qualifications! And BTW, I work 24/7 for no extra pay, I clean up sick, cat poo, dead birds, smile at yet another agent at the door and occasionally smile at my Dh!!

jothorpe you are right
but I am always amazed at a number of parents asking me if I will take cash in hands
Every time I look for a new job, I get offers like that, they think coz I am Croatian I don't mind not paying tax and NI
And I wander where do they get that idea from?
One woman told me, "well my slovakian nanny took the cash and she was happy, why can't you do the same?"
It seems to me that lots of parents think that european girls don't mind getting cash in hand, so that is what they are offering.
Somebody on this thread admited it too, she said it was cash she payed to the australian nannies.
Also depending where in Europe they are from, some of them are not allowed to work in this country, they cone over here on au-pair visa and start working as nannies for cash as thay have no NI number.
I'd say out of every 10 interviews I been for, 6 offered cash in hand

If European nannies are the same as British nannies, qualified and or expierenced, and they are supposed to pay tax and N.I how comes they are cheaper?
Nannies don't decide what to be payed, it's not like we just picked a figure out of the sky cos we thought that sounded good. We go by the legal rate of pay for that position. So if your paying your supposbly equal european nanny less, then they are being under payed.

Good post, JollyMum.

Legal rate of pay? WTF is that?
Surely market rates dictate what you pay, or legal minimum wage, possibly. But I don't see it written anywhere "Nannies can only be paid X."

I think she is refering to the going rate of pay

and in london area going rate of pay is £80 net per day for a nanny working 10/11 hours a day

Yes, but the "going" rate of pay is not the same as a "legal" rate of pay, is it? We're back to what the thread is about originally, market rates.

Am appalled by your experience of "cash in hand", BTW.

There is no legal rate of pay. There is only nanny's desire and employer's offering. If you are a live out nanny than your legal rate of pay is otherwise known as minimum wage. If you are live-in there is no minimum.

No, Beety, they're all hiding!

I wasn't talking about legal rate of pay, but simply stating the going rate.

Cronanny, I know you weren't, that was PennyLame.
I wasn't getting at you - you sound a fab nanny.

ENGLISH NANNIES ARE NOT BETTER THAN FOREIGN ONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AGREE!!!!