How much should I pay unqualified nanny although girl is experienced in childcare?

[Gingermilo]

I have 2 children under age of 5 and I want to know how much net/gross someone would expect to receive if unqualified as I have someone that has worked in a nursery wanting the job. I don't understand at all how net and gross works - it seems really complicated! We are in inner London btw. Any help appreciated!

Live in/Live out?
Hours?

Would working in a nursery really count as unqualified? Depends on her experience, I suppose, but our nanny had nursery experience and no sole charge but I certainly wouldn't consider her unqualified. She has childcare qualifications coming out of her ears.

Anyhow. We pay her £96 a day net for 10.5 hours. I can't remember exactly what that works out as gross - around £130? (I try not to think about it...). That's fairly standard for London, I think.

Net is what she gets after tax and employee National Insurance (ie what she gets paid into her bank account to spend). Gross is what she gets before tax and employee NI - this is what you really should make sure you agree with her in the contract. For reasons I can't fathom, most nannies think in terms of net pay. Which is very unlike anyone else - if a job is advertised for £35,000 you'd expect to have tax and NI deducted from that. Don't forget that on top of her tax and employee NI (which you will have to deduct and pay to the Inland Revenue) you have to pay employer NI as well.

A good nanny tax company can help and is pretty essential if you're at all unsure. We use PAYE for Nannies - they are terrific.

I would guess anywhere from £6-£10 gross per hour for live-out.
Have you asked them how much they want paying?

You can find info about PAYE at HMRC:PAYE
www.listentotaxman.com is a handy site for doing some basic calculations on Gross, Take Home Pay (Net) and Employers NI.

When agreeing a wage, put the Gross per hour wage in the contract. The gross wage is the important one for you as the employer - as the persons net wage can vary month to month depending on their tax code and various deductions.

I would not advise that you agree to paying a NET wage. If someone says they want x amount Net, then work out roughly what that would be Gross and say that you will pay x amount gross, which may be near their Net amount.
Someone who has worked in a nursery should know about Gross wages, as the nursery would have been paying Gross.

You could try looking at job adverts to see if any of those give an indication of salary, some will. www.nannyjob.co.uk is one of the largest UK sites listing nanny jobs.

How much can you afford to pay?
That is a figure you can calculate... then using that figure drop it say 10-20% and start negotiations there.

Personally I don't understand how someone can apply for a job where they have no idea of what the salary being offered is. Did you give any salary indication in the job advert?

Like in other industries, if the job involves unsocial hours then the pay tends to be higher. So if it were a live-out job requiring the applicant to start at 6am, then I would class that as being an unsocial hour.

Keep in mind that someone unqualified may not meet requirements of the Ofsted Childcare Register... which while not being compulsory for nannies at this time, is an important consideration if you get Childcare Vouchers from your employer under Salary Sacrifice Scheme.

Great, thanks all. She would be live out and it is for 3 days sole charge of baby and drop off/ pick up for sch for eldest. Have not put an advert in yet but eldest is at the nursery she is working and she told me she was leaving to look for a 3 day job so that's where this conversation first started. I just wanted to know what was standard in terms of pay for someone of her experience I guess. Will carry on doing research!

I did this a few years ago when my first child got to school age - his key worker at nursery wanted to leave for a nanny job so we employed her. I asked her how much she wanted to be paid, she said she would be happy as long as I matched her nursery wage (which was for full-time hours, I was asking for less hours per week) so I matched it and added some on.
Having employed an ex-nursery nurse in their first nanny job, if I did it again I would have a long chat with them about the differences between the 2 jobs..it's not about the childcare per se but nannying can be quite lonely after working in a busy nursery, cooking/making lunch for the children is a new duty, emphasis on art/craft in a nursery is high whereas I would prefer nanny to do a little less (or do it at the drop-in kids sessions) and a bit more one to one reading/constuction toys. And my ex-nanny found it difficult to adjust to the fact that there were no team members to cover for her if she wanted to come in late or have an afternoon off (obviously she had a holiday entitlement but she was used to being able to book an afternoon off with a couple of days notice and that wasn't possibile as a nanny since I/dh just wouldn't be able to get the time off that quickly).

whatever she is worth to you

For London you are looking at at least £80 net per day, you are responsible for her tax and NI, companies like nannytax can help you out on this. As a nanny she is also entitled to holiday and maternity pay.

She also needs to know that nannying is not just childcare, she also is responsible for all nursery duties - cooking, cleaning, laundry for the children.

Agree with Millarkie. Ask what salary they are on now and then add a bit more on top. That then gives you a starting point and you can always review it after 6 months, 1 year etc. Nursery work and nannying are different so she will need to get used to not having a break (nannies don't usually get breaks) and having to entertain your children all day long herself, plus do the cooking, children's laundry etc.

Check your contract with the nursery, they don't tend to like it if you poach their staff - you may find there is a clause in the contract which prevents you from doing so, or a clause which states the fee payable. You should also tell her to check her contract as well, as that may contain clauses about not working for a nursery user for x amount of time after leaving her job.

Thanks everyone, that gives me loads to go on. Between 6 and 10 gross an hour seems quite a range - would be anything between 54-90 a day before tax then?

How many hours would it be for? My friend is a nanny and gets paid £6.60 an hour BUT she gets 7 weeks paid holiday.

Would offer 10 weeks paid hols as we are teachers. 9 hours a day 8.30-5.30, does that sound reasonable? Sorry, am a bit green about all of this and don't want to offere too low or high!

Nappyaddict, is that 6.60 net or gross btw?

A 9 hour day is quite short for a nanny, so that will appeal to some, but will also mean that they would earn less than if they worked 10, 11, 12 hours per day.

10 Weeks paid holiday is a great perk though, but you may have conditions on that such as they can only take holiday during school holidays. I had that condition in a former nanny job... worked quite well actually - though meant I could not take advantage of the lower cost holidays available during school term time.

I think being in London you may need to offer towards the top end of the price scale, as it is a live-out job and the persons accommodation costs could be quite high. As it is live-out I would suggest you get someone who lives as close to you as possible - so they have less chance of being late for work.

Being teachers, can you really say that one of you will always be home by 5.30pm? My former boss tried to do that, but things do crop up, such as parents wanting a word with teachers after school, parents evenings, etc.

In your case, just ask the person you have found what they want to be paid. They may only be wanting what they got in nursery, or a little more.

Agree with Millarkie that nannying and working in a nursery is quite different.

My guess was a bit out. She gets paid £6 an hour net.

Nursery wages are often low. Our nanny was getting £6 per hour gross in a London nursery before she came to us. Therefore, I would definitely discuss with her what she is currently earning and what she is looking for and offer her something that is a slight improvement in what she currently earns but be prepared to review it in say, six months, if she is doing well. She will need to make adjustments such as learning to cook baby/toddler food and will have to get used to taking the initiative when she may be used to following sets of procedures and timetables laid down by her nursery. That said there are lots of positives with ex-nursery nurses such as good ability to spot signs of illness (e.g. ours spotted toddlers with chicken pox in the local park and took our little one away immediately so chicken pox avoided). Also many nursery nurses have the qualifications to meet OFSTED registration whereas many nannies do not.