advertising for a nanny - should I mention proposed pay or not?

[nomoresleep]

I'm about to start advertising for a nanny again. We were v lucky with our previous nanny who stayed for over 3 years until we had our second baby. I really want to get the recruitment process right to increase chances of getting another great candidate - last time around it was more by luck than anything else that we got someone good.

My current dilemma is whether or not to mention what we are proposing to pay in the job advert.

We are planning on offering £9 per hour net for a 30 hour week (SE London, zone 2, near East Dulwich).

However, I suppose for a fabulous nanny we might increase this to £10 net - the difference in cost is about what it costs to have a cleaner, which is a luxury we've splashed out on whilst I was on maternity leave and I would have loved to continue but could drop if necessary.

So, what should I do? Say it's £9 net? Say nothing as in most job ads? I can see arguments for and against at the moment.

All views welcome!

why thank you nannyl

You can't have it all ways. I advertise gross but I advertise a range (like in nearly all "normal" job ads). You then get offered against experience; can request more and may or may not get it.

However, you need to have clear logic in your head for this e.g. 10 yrs top etc. and be able to explain yourself.

You also have the problem of determining what experience you count and what you don't. Childcare jobs can vary quite a bit in terms of amount of responsibility someone has, also the ages of the children for whom they have cared will vary.
Some nannies will have experience of other types of work... how would that count in the 10 years approach? It may not count at all, or it may count to a lesser extent than a job directly in childcare. I don't know... how do you evaluate this kind of thing. A nanny may not have always been a nanny.

I know someone who hired a nanny through an agency, nanny agreed to the offered wage but between signing contract and starting the job the agency let slip the 'top of the range' salary that the family would have offered (to a suitably qualified experienced nanny) which was a little higher than the amount nanny had been offered. Cue a disgruntled employee from day one.
That would stop me from offering a range - I have to admit I tend to advertise without a salary and ask the better applicants what salary range they are looking for, but then maybe I would be missing out on the most fab nannies this way

Nick you are right and I value education etc. too; was not implying this is the right criteria; just that you need to be able to explain yourself if you offer a range.

Thanks again everyone. This is an interesting discussion.

I was thinking some more about this last night....

I feel that stating the pay is the 'right' (ethical? professional?) thing to do. I think it's not right or fair to make potential candidates pitch a proposed pay rate, especially given that it's supposedly an employer's market at the moment.

So why do so many of us parents say nothing about the pay? Possible reasons-

1. Because this is what most ads do and we are mainly first-timers copying everyone else?

1. Because employing a nanny is so expensive and we are hoping that super nanny will come along and ask for say 8 instead of 9 net and then we can afford luxuries like foreign holidays or weekends away, stuff that would make a real difference to quality of life?

1. Because the nanny market is so incredibly opaque that nobody really knows what the appropriate level of pay is (including many if not most nannies) and we don't want to put the wrong number?

Perhaps all of these and more? But if we don't start being more up front about the pay, then the third issue will never be resolved.

I have decided against a range for all the reasons you've mentioned. I suppose that if experience and qualifications are what matters to you, it is straightforward and inoffensive to offer a salary range depending on those - very objective - factors (and I guess this is why most 'normal' jobs state a range). But I'm not sure that experience/qualifications per se are that important to us as a family and I think we will be prioritising other stuff like kindness, pro-activity, energy, enthusiasm and just the basic 'chemistry'. I think it would be hard to explain to a potential nanny why we felt she/he fell towards the bottom of a range on those factors without causing huge offense and of course we will only be able to hazard guesses at where she/he falls based on the interview process/references.

I like nick's point about leaving room for salary increases/bonuses.

If anyone is still reading this and has any thoughts on salary issues, please post more! I have found this and Boffin's thread on employing a nanny v interesting reading (perhaps we should create a mumsnet guide to employing a nanny!).

Oh we totally should - the MN guide to nannies, au pairs and everything in between.

Staring the salary is the right thing to do. I prefer a single figure and then negotiable for the right candidate.

Most nannies think they know what they're worth to themselves but that may not tally up for an employer! Asking nannies what they're getting in their current position may be a good guide - suspect agencies have stashes of such data which they may or may not analyse!

Frakkinaround - I agree that the nannies on here will be clued up about their earning potential, but do you think that's true more generally?

When we advertised for a nanny last time around, we didn't put the pay rate and just asked the candidates what they were looking for as per the normal practice and I was amazed at the variance and, you know what, it really didn't seem to bear very close relation to anything objective - it was more an issue of self-confidence - or so it seemed to me!

MILLARKIE if an ad didnt have a salary in it, then i would def ask/email and say what I wanted - have done this a few times and often i get an email saying i want too much/cant afford me - which is fine

Hm on nanny sites people often come and ask what they should be earning and get replies with the standard 'according to age, experience, hours, qualifications' and then a range. Quite often people have quite unrealistic expectations of their earning potential, particularly inexperienced and often unqualified nannies who are pitching themselves against nannies with 5-10 years and wondering why they're not getting jobs. Most people can place themselves somewhere on the scale but it is an issue of confidence as well. Some nannies price themselves unrealistically high, others are bargains at twice the price but most know roughly what other nannies of their status are getting. For example I price myself quite high and get what I ask for but equally I appeal to a relatively niche market who will pay for my profile.