How much to pay a 14 year old for feeding my cat

[catluver]

I'm going on holiday for 9 nights from Xmas Day and my friend's son is going to visit our house twice/day to feed the cat, let it out during the day and back in at night. He'll leave dry food down and put fresh water down. The cat is likely to go to the toilet outside but he might need to clean the litter tray once, and also check for accidents on the kitchen floor and clean that (but hopefully that won't happen).

How much should I pay him? He'll walk to our house (10 minutes) and spend no more than 5-10 minutes feeding/cleaning - twice each day.

Thank you for your suggestions :)

My kids have done this for neighbours over the years, though only one visit a day, which is £10 a day. So though £20 sounds a lot it probably is about right

£10 per day except Christmas day, Boxing day and New year's day which I'd increase to £15. And a £10 tip when I got home and found everything tidy and well.

Those of you getting professionals in for £8 a time have me aghast!

Isn’t minimum wage around £6 for teens? I’d pay an hour for each visit so twice a day, £12 in normal circumstances. Up it to £15 a day considering it’s over Christmas.

You won’t get any professional to do it for less than £20.

I would check the terms of my house insurance though before I let a teen lock my house up twice a day.

I wouldn't pay as much as a professional because the chances are you would rather have a professional and are just letting him do this as an opportunity to earn money. £150 all in.

My 14 year old gets £20 a day here although she is covered by our insurance. She only asked for £10 but she put in lots of time and extra work playing with them and staying longer to make sure all who are meant to be are in at bedtime etc. She now has a couple of new "clients" (neighbours etc) too because she is like Dr Doolittle with animals

Yes you are, that's embarrassingly low. Especially for someone who is a professional vet nurse. I wouldn't sleep at night paying that. That's less than third world country wages, especially after petrol/travel.

£20 day sounds very fair. What is the expectation on this 14 year old if the cat doesn't come back in at night during his "5-10 minutes" or comes back injured/takes unwell?

He might only be a 14 year old, but you are also getting his parents supporting him if there are problems a 14 year old isn't equipped to handle.

I would also buy his mum a reasonable gift for being the backup/accompanying him.

You think that’s reasonable….for 2 daily visits…..locking up home…..doing it all over the Christmas period…..including 3 public holidays……and cleaning up cat shit….depends what you class as reasonable I guess …I get double pay and a day in lieu for working bank holidays …..so I think a tenner a day is a proper piss take…..taking advantage of a child

My son would be happy with £10/day but seeing as it's 9 days I would round it up and pay £100.

We last had a professional come about 5 years ago and it was £8 per visit then.

£15 per day?

Does it need to be twice a day? Once is probably fine for a cat.

It needs to be let out and in again?

I would give him 100.00 for the nine days. This is a good amount. He is 14. He is not a professional pet sitter. Opportunities for teens to earn money are thin on the ground this is a good deal on both sides.

Quick search and found an insured cat sitter who charges £14 for 2 quick visits to a cat or £22 for 2 half hour visits

I would not be paying the same price to a local teen as i would an insured professional.

I would probably be looking at £10 per day. If he encountered any difficulties over the visits then i would give him some extra

I really doubt any pet sitters are charging this little for going to visit animals over the Christmas period especially on Christmas day, boxing day and new years day.

As others have said £10 per visit is a fair price. The fact this kid is 14 is irrelevant, presumably the op is expecting the exact same service as she would from a professional in terms of looking after her cat and property so she should either pay him fairly or pay for a professional who is likely to be charging a heck of a lot more than £20 a day.

Is that what they charge on bank holidays?

You need to work with your son on self worth🙄

I pay a child of a friend to do similar for my cat. Only once a day here and no litter tray. I pay £10 per day

I think if you want him to take the responsibility seriously as he should, the pay needs to reflect that this is serious role.

So it's 10m walking each way, 10 min at the house twice a day - so an hour a day? Not including if the cat doesn't come home on time / makes a mess / the litter needs changing? Definitely £20 a day!

Also 9 days is a really long time to leave a cat without company, especially only being let in and out of the house twice a day - what if the weather is horrendous? Or it's super cold? Or the cat isn't there to be let in one evening? Honestly we don't leave our cats without an in house sitter for more than a night and we have a cat flap.

Also what would happen if he arrived and a window was broken, door opened and you'd unfortunately been robbed?

i'm thinking a professional sitter would make sure it was secure and let you know and that was job done. I'm assuming you'd be expecting the lad to tell his mum and they both sort as much as they can for you? Pay for th3 service you'll be expecting

I knew this thread would be full of '£20 a day' gubbins.

It's one hour a day of piss easy 'work'.

£20 an hour is the equivalent of a £41k salary fgs. The kid is 14 and two thirds of his 'job' is going to be (drumroll) walking.

£10 a day would be generous. My own 14 year old would bite your hand off for that and his self worth is just fine 😆

£100

As it's 2 visits a day, and it's not just next door, £20 per day would be the minimum.
Make sure you've been clear what to do and who to contact if there's a problem. Set up channels of communication with him, make sure he can get hold of you easily.