how much to pay AP for weekend babysitting

[booreeve]

Hi - still new to this whole AP thing....but I told her that if she were to babysit for us at the weekend we would top-up her pocket money as it's her freetime she's giving-up.
At the moment we pay her £65 per week, plus her language course, PAYG mobile, oyster car etc...how much do you think is reasonable as "extra pocket money"?

Thanks

Most ap's have 2 nights per week babysitting as part of their 'contract'. If you've said you'd give her extra, then I would expect extra at normal babysitting rates (so maybe £5 per hour). Or is this daytime babysitting?

i think its only fair to pay extra if she needs to babysit on her day off. would certainly make my day out a lot shorter coming back for six instead of nine -ish if i had to babysit. and yes i think 5pounds is about right.

I think you also need to take into account if her pay exceeds £100 per week she is liable to tax and N.I.

FWIW I have asked agencies this question and there was a suggestion for £3.50 per hour for aps. Another suggested a flat rate for the evening.

we used to pay ours £5 per hour for any extra work

Good point about the day off issue. We used to negotiate this together. I never used both nights per week, and seldom asked for a w/e evening, so win win all round I think.

I think if you are paying for extra hours, then it should be at minimum wage as they have already worked a number of hours at below minimum wage to account for room and board.

Thanks for all the advice. Week night babysitting is not an issue as its contracted, but I feel she should be paid more for out of hours help. I just wonder that if we pay her £5 per hour whether that in theory puts her "pocket money" out of cilter as it were - ie her "hourly" rate at weekend night time babysitting is more than her weekly hourly rate as it were!
Am happy to pay her say an extra £15-£20 for a w/e evening babysitting but was just wondering what everyone else does.

Have never paid extra,unless i have used over my 2 nights or its daytime.None of my aupairs ever expected extra either. However they can have a month with no babysitting required at all.Also had one aupair with such a busy social life(extra classes,clubs etc she went to) she said she was free to babysit on Tuesdays and Sundays only,not nights i tend to want to go out on.

For next AP I would advise you contract 2 nights of b sitting a week one of which could be a sat once a month then no problem. If we went over that amount I would ask AP if she wanted to do it and if she said yes i would pay her £5 an hour. I wouldn't worry about her going over the tax threshold in the same way I would not be concerned if my other baby sitter (deputy manager of my nursery) was declaring her baby sitting money to the tax man !!

I've always always asked my aupairs to babysit up to 3 nights week, although it's very rarely more than 2 nights, one night will cover me going out before DH gets back from work so will usually only be for an hour at most. I've always been clear with them that one of those nights will be a weekend night, usually a Saturday. This has never been a problem as most of their friends also babysit on saturday nights too.