How much to pay Nanny?

[samiryn]

Moving on from holiday entitlement which I think I have now got my head round, I'm very confused by the varying rates of pay people are paying to Nanny's, and that Nannys expect! I've had applicants 17years old fresh out of school with a diploma asking for £8-£9ph net and those with 3 years experience asking for less?

I'm currently quite set on a Nanny (ticks all the boxes, not yet met the kids though) and am wondering about the rate of pay she should receive.

She will be working Tues/Weds/Thurs. It is a 10 month contract. She will work 8am-5pm and in that time has 3 children to look after. eldest has school, younger two have pre school in afternoons. There will be usual household duties related to the children (cleaning, cooking, washing, etc). She has 2 years experience as a Nanny and is Ofsted registered. She worked in Nursaries for 3 years prior to becomming a Nanny.

I only have my friend's wage of £7ph net to go on. She has been a nanny for 4 years, is fully registered and used to be a Manager preschool in the mornings (so pretty qualified for childcare!). She does cooking, cleaning (kids rooms/living rooms/kitchen/bathrooms), washing, ironing. BUT she is a full time Nanny.

Is £7ph net reasonable, or should I be expecting to pay more because she's part time?

Thanks in advance

Location would help as city wages are higher than rural.

I feel it is odd for you to have any applicants without you stating a salary. Personally I wouldn't apply for a job where I had no idea how much would be paid. Maybe I'm odd... but isn't it the employer who sets the salary?

If I presume you are not in a city but are in the South East or another area where nannies salaries are reasonably high, then I'd say a salary around £100 gross per day would be reasonable for someone with experience.

Have you looked on recruitment sites for what other nanny jobs in your area are offering - that may help give an indication of local salary levels.

You have mentioned that college is paying for the childcare - does that mean you are using some funding scheme and if so do you have confirmation it can be used for a nanny - as the funding schemes seem to pay the provider directly, which would present an issue with a nanny as you would need to be deducting Tax and NI plus paying Employers NI.

As nannying is so personal there's no payscale really. I agree the 17year olds are ambitious! But they probably just looked at sites/agencies or heard it's the going rate for your area. Those who've had a nanny job tend to be more realistic and ask for a slight increase on their current wage.

I would offer the £7net but be prepared to go up a little if prospective nanny is currently working for more. She seems to have a little less experience but part-time does tend to pay a touch higher so it does balance out.

Make sure you agree a gross wage in the contract so if nanny gets a Mon/Fri job your tax bill definitely won't change.

I've tried looking on recruitment sites but don't seem to be able to find any specific to my area. I live in Buckinghamshire, but at the top on the borders of Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.

The salary I put as negotiable dependant on experience, because I'm not going to pay everyone the same rate if they have different experience.

nannynick, the college would pay up to 80% (it's not a set amount), the rest I would top up myself.

Thanks frakkit, I'll definately be basing it on a gross wage in the contract.

It may seem to some that I have no idea what I'm doing, but I've never been a nanny and never hired a nanny, so I have no experience other than what I read and what I'm told. I want to make sure I get everything right so that I can be a good employer to my Nanny, and also cover everything in the contract. I want to be able to give her fair reasonable wages and not try to underpay her, but I also don't want to overpay her.

Thanks for your help.

Oh that sounds like a better way to do things in your situation than Free Childcare for Training and Learning for Work scheme, though may be less money as FCTLW provides up to £175 per child, per week.

I'm a little worries that you say that the 80% is not a set amount... as I think it will probably have a weekly maximum, so does in effect have a set amount, as your childcare costs with a nanny will probably exceed the weekly maximum.
If it is done similar to the Childcare element of Working Tax Credit the weekly limit may be 80% of £300, which is £240 - so a lot less money than you would get under the other scheme (3x £175) £525.
Eligibility requirements of the various schemes are different, so I will presume that you have looked into this and have come up with the scheme that best fits your financial situation and type of childcare provider you want to use.
If you would like me to look at the funding documents to see what limits there may be, please let me know the name of the funding scheme.

Some search results that may help with establishing nanny salaries in your area:
Buckinghamshire - perhaps look at jobs in Milton Keynes if you are near that location.
Northamptonshire

Nannies on Childcare.co.uk near MK19 - many don't list fees (expected salary) though, so may not be of a lot of help.

I'm currently quite set on a Nanny (ticks all the boxes, not yet met the kids though) and am wondering about the rate of pay she should receive.

So does that mean you have someone who is interested in the job, who you have met but whom has not yet met your children? If so then you are doing well and just need to agree on salary, expected duties, typical expenses (activities, trips out, mileage) etc.

Better to ask than muddle through and there are lots of helpful threads on MN (and people like nick, who knows what he's talking about).

What wage range did you put? Or did you just put 'neg. on exp.'?

I am in east midlands and charge very top end of going rate but then am very experienced and qualified.

The going rate for northamptonshire tends to be from £6-£10 GROSS an hr dependant on experience and qualifications.

I would def agree a gross wage and would consider offering £8 GROSS an hr and negotiating from there if neccesary.

I didn't put a wage range, just put negotioable on experience.

nannynick, had a 45min long chat with the nanny, she sounds good and all the conversations we'd had prior were good, but have yet to meet her and/or introduce her to the children.

She talked about petrol - has asked for £40 a month which I think is a little much, as she will be doing very few miles and has a tiny car. That's another thing I still need to get to grips with,... apparently I have to do it per mile instead of an agreed amount otherwise it's taxable?

The 80% is the maximum depending on your financial situation. I'm a single mum currently on Income Support so am entitled to the most if not all of the 80% entitlement of whatever my childcare costs are. I asked if this is able to be spread over two childcarers and it is (nanny and preschool for the younger two). Both times I have discussed this with the college, they've never told me there's a capped amount. But I will check this again tomorrow because different places do different things. The funding comes direcectly through Bedford college.

The duties we've loosely covered whats expected but need to do it again in more detail. Trips out will probably never happen as she only has the younger two for a few hours in the morning 3 times a week. The rest of the time is feeding kids, doing school runs or on her own and/or cleaning.

The nanny does sound great so far, we talked through emails for a while before on the telephone, and the telephone 'interview' if you can call it that, went well. I just wanna get it all right!

She talked about petrol - has asked for £40 a month which I think is a little much, as she will be doing very few miles and has a tiny car. That's another thing I still need to get to grips with,... apparently I have to do it per mile instead of an agreed amount otherwise it's taxable?

I care for a toddler, so most short trips are morning based - such as to toddler group, to a large parkland area (with deer, playground, cafe), swimming, indoor play centre.

Yes, nanny has to record the actual mileage driven (I use a form which I keep in my car to record mileage - example - which I then transfer to a spreadsheet once a month) and claim that from you at max of £0.40 per mile. See AMAPS

I can average 350-400 work miles a month... working a 4 day week. School holidays that can peak to 550 miles a month. School holidays won't be an issue for you, unless your college term time is different to the schools (remember there are inset days at schools).

It will depend on your location and the location of places to which your nanny will travel with your children. I feel £40 a month mileage is fairly low... it's only 100 miles a month.
Use tools like Google Maps to get a feel for drive distances between your home and activity places and remember it's a round trip.

You can dictate what places your nanny goes to if you so wish... you can also insist that short journeys (if practical) are walked. For instance I will walk to and from school.

I asked if this is able to be spread over two childcarers and it is (nanny and preschool for the younger two).

While you can have more than one provider, I'm not convinced you have can more than one provider at the same time. Love to be proved wrong.
Try to find out the name of the funding scheme - as then with luck I can have a look at the funding rules and establish what you can, and can't claim.
Have they sent you any documents about it yet? It may be Childcare Grant which has limits.
Maybe the college are doing their own thing... great if they are though I thought colleges had funding issues themselves these days with Government cutbacks.

some 17yrs want £9

agree you need to agree a wage and a gross one and decide what YOU can afford and if the nanny wants more than find a new one

no point in having someone you cant afford

as a nanny i wouldnt go for an interview without a salary as no point if you cant pay me what i want then we are both wasting our time

£40 a month n petrol is nothing!! as nick said 100 a month, so 25miles a week, on a tuesday i do 80+miles!!!!

The 40p per mile, I see it's a maximum amount. Based on her car, it costs 9p per mile for petrol. Where do the extra costs come in that you pay on milage? Again, not trying to 'wriggle out of it', I'm just interested what I'm paying for. Over 3 days, the milage is 42 miles. The preschool is 10min walk away, which could cut down 4 miles per day or 12 miles a week.

I've tried to find out who fund it, but it doesn't tell you in the prospectus or online. I will know more when I receive my forms I guess. Interesting point about childcare at the same time.

I can afford £7.50 ph net or so, but if it's over the odds for her experience/age/etc, then I didn't want to be overpaying just because I wasn't experienced enough in the world of Nanny's to know what was a good wage and what wasn't.

Thanks nanynick for the links by the way

Mileage covers wear & tear as well. 40p is the max - I get 30p per mile for my 1.6 Rover and I think I worked out that my petrol costs are around 18p per mile.

As your potential nanny has already nannied before I'm sure she must have business insurance on her car - but it is a point you ought to check. I provide my employer with a copy of my insurance and also a copy of my MOT.

40p per mile covers wear and tear too.

What does £7.50 net work out to gross for the hours you need?

I did think of the business insurance, but I would hope she knows about that, but will check. Thanks nbee84

missus84, £7.50net is £202.50 a week net, and I think gross (based on the most up to date fugures I can find) is about £242 a weeks gross. £260 with employer NIC. That's 27 hours a week.

That sounds quite reasonable - I'd maybe start a bit lower (£230 a week gross say - which is about £7.25 an hour net) and then you've got a little bit of wiggle room.

samiryn - you can use calculator.kistax.com/ to do Payroll calculations. Make sure you change the Hours box to 27.

As well as maintenance plus fuel, MAPS I feel also includes contributions to costs like MOT, Road Tax, Insurance and the cost of the car itself.

One thing the nanny will need is car seats. Will you be providing them, or do you expect the nanny to provide those? Something to discuss with your prospective nanny.

I will be providing the seats, and as she's only part time I'll be swapping over mine to her car for the days she works. I did contemplate buying extra seats for her, but I have nowhere to store them when she's not working.

Thanks for that link, that's a fantastic calculator!

Glad you like it, must update it for 2010/11... and a few other things.

samiryn, I was wondering if you had got any further with college with regard to if the amount they are offering to pay is capped, or not?