Paying Nanny - Advice needed please

[MrsMattie]

Been interviewing live-out nannies today. Most of them seem to want £9 per hour net pay. Have been trying to work out how much this is going to cost us.

We are looking to employ someone from 8am-6.30pm 3 days a week. So per hour that would work out at £283.50 a week net pay for the nanny.

Have been looking at this Nannyjob link, which says I will be paying £407 a week.

£407 a week for part time childcare? I nearly keeled over. Feel like crying.

Also saw a nice childminder this morning, but she ios the only one of the entire borough council liast who has vacancies and can do the hours I need and can do pick ups from my son's school. And she ain't cheap, even with 'sibling discounts' and the like.

How do people manage this?

Can you offer £8 or £8.50 as a compromise? I don't know what the market is like for nanny jobs where you are, or usual salary rate, but in the current economic climate if you have several good candidates and they don't have lists of jobs to choose from you are in a stronger position to negotiate a lower salary.

In my opinion you're doing this the wrong way round. Work out how much you can afford to pay, gross, and advertise the job with the salary. Then only people will apply who will work for what you're offering. You're wasting everyone's time otherwise.

I don't know where you are, but £9 net seems high to me. Where I am £7-£9 gross is typical. Even when I was working in London I think I was on £10 gross.

is the childminder cheaper? surely she must be?

Agree you need to set the wage in the area I am £6-£9 net an hr is average and I charge £10-£12 an hr for ad-hoc work and night nanny work.

It will depend on nannies experience, quals, area and also if nanny is bringing own child to work for all or part of the time.

I am in east midlands.

agree with others on here. When you go for a job interview do you tell your employers what you charge net an hour ??!!

I would have thought depending on where you are that between £300 and 400 a week net is more realistic and then pro rata for part time.

If you are in the country its near the lower end and the top end for London.

Only very expernce nannies with a number of small charges are commanding what is nearly 2k a month net !!

Thank you for all your sensible comments, ladies.

As you can tell, I am totally green to this

The childminder works out quite expensive, actually, as we would be paying for two children.

Good news is....we met a lovely nanny this afternoon who is charging less because she wants to bring her own toddler to work with her. Really lovely lady, too. Soooo...all is not lost!

Thanks all for your invaluable advice.

Coming to this a bit late (as some of us have to work ).

As the job is part-time, it is vital that you agree the salary GROSS, not NET. Hopefully the nanny (with her own toddler) will understand Gross wages.

If you were say to pay £9 gross per hour, then if the persons full tax code was assigned to your job, then for 09/10 tax year take home pay is about £12,100 per annum.
If on the other hand the person already had a job which used the full tax code, the take home pay would be about £10,800
Thus if you had agreed to pay £12,100 net per year but then found out that the nannies personal tax allowance was not being assigned to your job, then it would cost you an extra £2115 roughly (as you would need to increase the gross pay amount such that the net pay amount was the same... which also then effects Employers NI).
You can play with figures at www.listentotaxman.com which will work out what you are likely to be deducting in Employees Tax, Employees NI and what you will be paying in Employers NI. It needs a gross figure and a tax code (leave the tax code blank for the standard single persons allowance, use BR if the person has another job).

Remember the Mumsnet Nanny Recruitment Rule - Always agree the contract as a Gross salary, never NET.

agree work out what you can afford and then advertise it - you can write both wages in with nett in brackets if you think it might get in more nannies

how much does the nanny with child want?

obv depending what the local cm charge, but if 4.50 or less an hour then maybe having a cm will work out less than ananny,as you dont have to pay tax and ni on top of the cm wage, so her hourly fee x2 times the hours is all you pay

think you said you are in london, and as you have a baby you want someone who has had baby exp ideally - so nannies asking for 8/9nett is prob the average

unless you go for someone a lot younger

When I was looking for a nanny, the first 2 I interviewed were looking for more than I could afford, mainly because they had previous nanny experience. The nanny I employed had worked in a nursery for 5 years but hadn't nannied so was cheaper. She has been brilliant - often attitude is more valuable than experience.

I wish more parents would advertise how much they were looking to pay, as would make life easier as a nanny looking for work, I hate the question 'How much are you looking for?'

If I knew what they were looking to pay before we wouldn't need to discuss the subject so much and if they weren't offering what I needed to earn I wouldn't of gone for an interview.

Oh I absolutely agree - I hate asking in the initial stages how much the salary is but there's no point carrying on if they're not going to pay what you're looking for and you don't waste everyone's time that way. Makes life so much easier when employers say what the salary is on the ad!

though guess many employers dont want to write £9nett if they can get someone for £7 nett - over a 10hr day thats £20nett saved,so £100 nett a 5 day week, let alone the tax and ni on top of it

How are jobs advertised in other industries? I think when I applied for a job in Government, I was given a salary range - which was based on the grade of the job.

If someone advertising for a nanny put the salary as a range, such as £15,000 - £20,000 per annum, then that would give applicants an idea of what to expect. Salaries are of course advertised as Gross, not nett - need to get nannies away from that... no other professionals get paid net, do they?

but would a younger nanny be pissed off if they only got offered 15k instead of 20k?

sure everyone going would want the higher end of scale

unless said something along the lines of exp depending

It's not done on age... it's done on experience and other factors (which the employer can decide). It also enables there to be some negotiation... and could mean an initial starting salary towards the bottom of the pay scale and going up the pay scale during the job - such as getting a good result at reviews, length of service etc.

If an employer isn't willing to provide an actual salary they will pay, surely putting a range is better than not putting anything.

very true nick

An example of a childcare related job, which is advertised with a salary range Senior Play & Youth Worker
Why couldn't something similar be done for nanny jobs?

When I was at work we (well HR dept) put out an advert with a salary range that was huge, the top end was over double the bottom end. It was true we would pay salaries across the range, but the problem was we had lots of people putting in applications asking for the top end of the range, when we were never going to give them it given experience and ability and often they didn't get to interview stage. If they'd asked for a more reasonable salary they might well have gone to interview. In other cases we offered a job with a salary a long way below what they were asking for, and often they said yes. The problem with ranges is that almost no-one asked for the bottom end.

thats excalty what i meant lobster

Have you considered a nursery? Our DC went from 10 months and 6 months respectively and loved it. I was very picky and happy with my final choice, Hours open from 7.30am till 6.30pm but you can drop and collect earlier/later etc. Cost £294 per week for full time 51 weeks of the year so 3 days I think would be circa £175. Having agonised over CM vs Nursery never looked back.

If you live in London or immediate surrounds like Twickenham, Kingston, Beckenham etc, then I am afraid to say that £9 net per hour is definitely the average rate for a reasonable nanny. I know it seems an awful lot especially as it is coming out of your net income but remember the nanny is going to have to live on it. A good cleaner or ironer in London can easily earn £9 per hour, so why should a decent nanny be paid less - we have got our priorities wrong!
Why not do a nanny share - sharing on the same days? Assuming you are in London, a nanny gets £10-£11 net per hour for looking after 2 families children on the same day and that wage is split between the two families in whatever proportion they feel fair. So if it was a 50:50 split, you would only be paying £5-£5.50 net - a considerable saving and your child/children would have a little companion. Just a thought.