What is the right price per hour to pay a nanny in London

[Lishylooloo]

We have found a french nanny, who has ten years experience (although no formal qualification) and I have done a trial day with her and she is very good. I particularly want a French nanny so DD will learn French. We also want her for three days a week which is not that easy to find (we're doing a nanny share). She wants £10 an hour net. I've done the calculations and her gross would be £13.10 and adding to that when I pay National Insurance it is going to cost me £14.25 an hour. Is this the right price to pay?

I am a qualified nurse and get paid about that.

Yes, sounds about right for someone with her experience. London wages are quite high, and you normally pay more for part time hours. You could probably find a newly qualified or inexperienced nanny, or maybe one bringing her own child, for £8 net an hour.

It grosses up at about the equivalent of £34,000 a year, i.e. the top of the teachers' pay scale for Inner London for a professional with Qualified Teacher Status, who has studied for 3-4 years and worked for 6. Is she really worth that?

you could try to negotiate but £9-10/net is about what I've been finding in SE London for nannies with 5-8 years experience, and as high as £13/net for 20+ years experience. (prices for a share.)

louii when I first qualified I was on less than that an hr as a nurse my gross hrly wage is now £14 an hr well just under so still less than that.

I ad-hoc nanny/night nanny and charge from £10 an hr and I am a qualified childrens nurse with a huge range of experience and am in east midlands.

A newly qualified nurse only earns £16,000 a year and now I can see why so many nurses just do the course to get a "free" degree and then go into other fields of work - many childrens nurses qualify and nanny now I know why!!!

I feel yes this nanny has got 10yrs experience however you could get a very qualified and experienced nanny for £10 net an hr in london its currently an employers market and you need to agree a gross wage which at that rate as you say is around £13 an hr maybe negotiate a gross wage of £11.50-£12 an hr with a pay review in 6mths time?

BoffinMum - doesn't £13.10 an hour mean just over £27,000 for a standard 40 hour week?

Nannies generally work a 50 hour week.
That's the problem with negotiating hourly rates for permanent 0.6 jobs! It grosses up at a huge amount!

I pay £9 per hour net in London for a nanny with 8 years experience and very good references. We negotiated it down from £10 per hour because she doesn't have to travel to us and also because it is very much an employers market at the moment. I think good references are far more telling than qualifications - I interviewed other nannies with quals who were clearly far less competent.

I would definitely try to negotiate given the market - there are more nannies than jobs atm.

However, if you want a French nanny then you may find you have to pay the £10 per hour and can't negotiate because that is a specific skill that she offers that most other nannies in the market can't provide.

Is she working full time or part time? You will probably pay more per hour for a part time nanny (as they have to find another job and/or survive on fewer days work) than you would for a full time. Iit is a full time position thet £13 would be £34k per year which I think might be a bit much, but £13 gross per hour for say a 3 or 4 day week may be reasonable.

Ah, just noticed she is 3 days a week, like ours. I think then that £10 net is not unrealistic given you want a French speaker, but you may have some room for negotiation. Even if she won't drop to £9 net per hour, work out what it is for her full 3 days per hour and tehn see if you can round down.

"Nannies generally work a 50 hour week"

You were comparing to a teacher though, who I assume works a 40 hour week? Not really a fair comparison - of course you should get paid more for working more.

Sorry, ignore the 3 days per hour bit in my second sentence which makes ZERO sense. I meant if she won't take a big cut to her hourly rate then you should work out what her full wage would be for 3 days at £10 net per hour, and see if there is a handy amount it rounds down to that you could then agree with her.

Also, do you need her for the full 10 hours (which is a typical nanny day) - we worked out we could stagger our commutes so we have her for 9.5 hours so we saved money both by negotiating down on hourly rate and by cutting back the hours slightly.

I forgot to mention that it is nanny share and the other Mum will be taking her for 2 days (10 hours each day)

Can you afford £10 net an hour? If not you could try negotiating her down to £9 net, but French nannies are in demand and she might find someone else who will pay what she wants.

Teachers work over 50 hours a week on average according to a PWC report.

Averaged over the year?

im worth that boffin mum

lishylooloo - sounds about average, but esp as you want someone who can speak french and tbh not that many nannys can

apart from je voudrais un biere svp?

Technically it's not a nanny share - she is a nanny with 2 jobs.

A nanny share is when you look after the children from more than 1 family at the same time.

Also - if she has another 2 day job along side yours, are you splitting the tax code 3/5 - 2/5, or are you getting her full tax code and she will pay tax on all her wage from the 2 day job?

BoffinMum - Teachers work 50 hours a week for how many weeks of the year?

I was interested to see this thread as our nanny has just asked for a rise to £10 per hour (we currently pay just over £8). We have offered to meet her in the middle at £9 plus a few more hours a week (she is currently off on Fridays) for various reasons. This has been turned down - she wanted 20% more money for the same work/hours. She is a very experienced nanny and the kids love her, however we just culdn't afford it (am on mat leave, DH just got a new job at 20% less after 6 months redundancy). So now she is looking for another job - it (selfishly!) makes me feel a litle better to hear it's an employers' market. Fingers crossed the grass won't be greener...

That is a huge payrise she's after!

We are splitting the tax code in proportion, so 55% for me I think. Weboth use the same nanny tax agency for this so it's not a problem.

Lynette and Limonchick, the PWC report said it averaged 50 hours a week over the whole year, i.e. ridiculously long hours in term time and obviously lighter in the holidays when teachers don't have to be in school. In the aftermath of the report, the Government did try to do something about this by introducing ring-fenced planning and preparation time, but I think some teachers still have to work extremely hard for their money.

2hotcrossbuns, a £7k pay rise?????!!!! What planet is she on?????? I have just hired a nanny and while agencies started off telling me they were all getting £10 net an hour or more (in the main virtually unqualified girls with one or two years' experience), once I dug my heels in and told them I wanted someone experienced and qualified, they sent much better candidates to me and we ended up paying a lot less than that for a f/t post. Big thanks to Blondes who held my hand through all this, by the way. (And Blondes, you are sooooo worth it!!!)

It does initially sound a lot, if you compare it to a teacher or a nurse. But, on reflection, both teachers and nurses receive (I believe) decent pension packages, and a nanny does not. Therefore, there are hidden extras which make their jobs "worth" more.

That's a good point, Penth. The pensions are really valuable, particularly in the present climate.