If You Have a Nanny, Come In

[charlotteandwilbur]

That seems really high to me. I used to live in VHCOL (New York City) and paid $15/hr for one kid (take home pay, was more like $17-18 with taxes). We got tons of applicants at that rate all of whom had years and years of experience.

I now live in MCOL and have a nanny share. We pay $15/hr for two kids including an infant. In VHCOL I would expect to pay $20-22 for two kids, but maybe I am way off base.

[ECB]

That seems really high.

Anyhow- for a 4.5 month old, I'd consider a nanny too. We used a PT nanny for 2 years. I liked it and it worked out well. But at 2 we felt it was time to get DS around more kids.

[Deleted]

I used to be a nanny...apparently I should have done it in your area if that is what the going rate is!

[Deleted]

When I lived in NYC (Manhattan) we paid about $13 (we paid her $500 a week) an hour which was a bit on the low side for the city but we worked it out with the nanny that she'd get paid even on my day's off. I think that one of the things that really worked well for us and our nanny was the fact that we laid things out from the start for her. We knew we wanted a 1 year time frame and the minimum, she would get paid on the day's that I had off (I worked for a Jewish organization so I had lots of "holiday's"), we explained what we expected of her and asked her what she expected of us. I thinkt hat things like that made a difference in how we interacted with each other.

I'm really early into this pregnancy and I'm already concerned about what I'm going to do. I would much rather have a nanny for the first year if we can pull it off for this baby. I have NO idea what the average cost in LA (on the west side) is and I'm hoping to do some research for it soon. I gather that it would still be between $15-$20 an hour, like you we would only need someone for 7 hour day's and our older DS is 2nd grade so the nanny would only have one child.

If I do find out what the $$ is for LA I'll PM you.

[ijack]

dear god, that seems SO high!!
We pay $17/hr and our nanny watches 3 kids. As you know I've had my issues with nannies, but for the most part we really love it. It saved my ass going back to work after Q was born because I didn't have to get a baby and myself out the door. I know people do it all the time, but having 2 kids was really hard for me and so I appreciated making things a little easier. The nanny also does the girls' laundry, which is a nice help.
I highly recommend it if you can swing it. Maybe ask miso what she is paying for her nanny to get a better idea in your COL?

[hocus2]

I've never heard of a nanny making so much. I suppose some do if they work for a famous person  but the average nanny around here makes $12-$15 an hour and in park slope which has a parent group that runs survey's on this the hourly rate isn't that much higher. Not >$30 overall.

In a truly HCOL I'd expect maybe $25 an hour for a nanny.  Overall though I'd be aware that many nannies want to be full time. 6 hours a day for 4 days a week is too much for say a college student and too little for a full time career nanny.   

[ijack]

Jul 16, 2014 11:28:09 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Jul 16, 2014 11:22:52 GMT -5 ECB said:

That seems really high.

Anyhow- for a 4.5 month old, I'd consider a nanny too. We used a PT nanny for 2 years. I liked it and it worked out well. But at 2 we felt it was time to get DS around more kids.

If it works, and we want to go long term, then she'd start preschool at 2. 

We're starting Q in preschool this year at 3, which is probably a little later than we wanted to but she'll have 2 years in PT preschool before she starts K. At this point I can't imagine us never not having at least a PT nanny because the girls won't go to school in our neighborhood and we'll need help after school.

[Deleted]

Jul 16, 2014 11:29:51 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

I've never heard of a nanny making so much. I suppose some do if they work for a famous person  but the average nanny around here makes $12-$15 an hour and in park slope which has a parent group that runs survey's on this the hourly rate isn't that much higher. Not >$30 overall.

In a truly HCOL I'd expect maybe $25 an hour for a nanny.  Overall though I'd be aware that many nannies want to be full time. 6 hours a day for 4 days a week is too much for say a college student and too little for a full time career nanny.   

@kirkette I think that this is where you'd manage to make it work for you. A career nanny might want more hours but if your willing to say I'll pay you $20 an hour rather then the going rate of $17 an hour to make it worth your while I think that you'd get some really good candidates.

Based on just looking at craigslist it seems that the norm for our area (I looked in Culver City, West LA & the Marina area) the rates are between $15 and $20 an hour.

[Deleted]

That is very very high for a nanny. Even the highest paid nannies here ( Boston and suburbs) make $20.00 an hour.

[leonard131]

I live in a HCOL area, 1 kid and we pay $15.86 an hour. At the rate you got from the caculator you would be paying someone almost the equivalent to a $80K a year salary. If that is the case, will you hire me? :-)

[Deleted]

I don't think you can get what I have unless you speak Chinese. LOL.

You should be able to find somebody between $15 to $20/hr.

[anaps28]

Back in NY we paid our nanny $18/hr on the books for 23 hrs a week. Anything over 23 was $15/hr cash

[ijack]

Jul 16, 2014 11:46:36 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Jul 16, 2014 11:43:34 GMT -5 @misoangry said:

I don't think you can get what I have unless you speak Chinese. LOL.

You should be able to find somebody between $15 to $20/hr.

When people kept mentioning you, I'm like, "Uh ... miso has a different set up". 

I know, I just thought she'd be able to help you figure out if it was more the $15/hr or $38/hr range.

[nabum]

My nanny was incredible and we paid her $13-$15/hr.

[quickstepstar]

I agree $38 is WAY high. We are in CT, which is also HCOL, and care is giving me like $14 per hour. I think the highest we have paid was $19 an hour for 3 kids.

We are actually in the process of finding a nanny now for the next school year. The biggest benefit for me is that she will do drop offs, pick ups, and food prep. She would be able to take them to activities after school too. It is a bit more for us than paying daycare + afterschool care, but it frees up weekends, and takes the pressure off of me, since my DH's commute is crazy long.

[mswax]

I think your op was per DAY, not hour!

[Deleted]

Way too high. $17-$20/hour would be very fair (we pay $19.50 for a share). We have our nanny for DS and DD goes to school. It's been great and is a huge help in the morning.

[charlotteandwilbur]

Just a note on part-time nannies... if you only need school hours, you might be able to find someone who watches older kids after school and needs more hours in the mornings/early afternoons. That was our set up when we were in NYC and it worked great. Lots of nannies stay with families until the kids are school-aged but don't have anything to do while they are in school...

[leonard131]

Jul 16, 2014 11:52:00 GMT -5 @kar said:

Jul 16, 2014 11:43:03 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

LOL, you'd be sorely disappointed, it comes out to $13,752/ year. 

Huh? $38*6*4*52 = $47k. It is $912 a week at the low end of the range you posted. Are you planning to have your nanny unpaid for every school break? I think you will have a hard time finding someone who can take a job like that.

did my quick math based on a 40 hour work week. Not her reduced schedule which I forgot about - I was still in shock that care.com suggested $38 an hour.

[Willis Jackson]

I don't understand Care.com's math. 6hrs/day, 4days/week, $1146/mo take home = about $11/hr.

[Willis Jackson]

Jul 16, 2014 13:29:41 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Jul 16, 2014 12:57:39 GMT -5 mswax said:

I think your op was per DAY, not hour!

 Huh?

Below is the estimated breakdown using $1550/month as budget amount.  I used $1550 as it's the going rate for a lower mid-priced center. We paid about $2k/month  for infant-toddler care 4 years ago. That included more hours (although she still was only there from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm), food, and an activity.  The same center, different site, wanted about $2400/month, neither including food nor activities. 

From Care: 
Your monthly budget $1,549/mo

Gross pay $1,523

Taxes $152

Savings from tax breaks-$200

Care.com HomePay $74

Your caregiver's take-home $1,218/mo
 ($40.19/hr)


What is initially attractive about Care is that I believe they streamline the tax paperwork, background checks, and payment. If we go this route, I'm hoping to make the employee paperwork as straightforward as possible. I don't want it messing up our taxes, or causing more work/ $ for our tax guy to fix come February. 

$1218/$40.19 = 30 hours. You need someone more than 30 hours a month, right?

[hocus2]

Jul 16, 2014 13:29:41 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Jul 16, 2014 12:57:39 GMT -5 mswax said:

I think your op was per DAY, not hour!

 Huh?

Below is the estimated breakdown using $1550/month as budget amount.  I used $1550 as it's the going rate for a lower mid-priced center. We paid about $2k/month  for infant-toddler care 4 years ago. That included more hours (although she still was only there from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm), food, and an activity.  The same center, different site, wanted about $2400/month, neither including food nor activities. 

From Care: 
Your monthly budget $1,549/mo

Gross pay $1,523

Taxes $152

Savings from tax breaks-$200

Care.com HomePay $74

Your caregiver's take-home $1,218/mo
 ($40.19/hr)


What is initially attractive about Care is that I believe they streamline the tax paperwork, background checks, and payment. If we go this route, I'm hoping to make the employee paperwork as straightforward as possible. I don't want it messing up our taxes, or causing more work/ $ for our tax guy to fix come February. 

  If you paid your nanny 1,218 a month of ~96 hours (6h*4d*4w) you get something like $12.70 an hour. 

[Deleted]

Jul 16, 2014 12:02:11 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Jul 16, 2014 11:52:00 GMT -5 @kar said:

Huh? $38*6*4*52 = $47k. It is $912 a week at the low end of the range you posted. Are you planning to have your nanny unpaid for every school break? I think you will have a hard time finding someone who can take a job like that.

Again, I'm looking at the site and it's telling me after taxes and fees monthly  take home would be $1,146/month for 6 hours, and  $1,218/month for 7 hours.

There's no school breaks during the trial period. If the set up works,  then we'd keep care the same during breaks. I usually do consulting work over the summer. 

For the 6 hours quote then that is $11/hr, post tax, I guess since you say "take home." I think that's too low and I would expect to pay a premium for PT hours to get someone good. $38/HOUR is in the 50K range for the year with PT hours. I think somewhere in the middle is right, but I would expect at least a 30K investment with taxes etc. Our total investment with our share is 27K per year.

[mswax]

Jul 16, 2014 13:29:41 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Jul 16, 2014 12:57:39 GMT -5 mswax said:

I think your op was per DAY, not hour!

 Huh?

Below is the estimated breakdown using $1550/month as budget amount.  I used $1550 as it's the going rate for a lower mid-priced center. We paid about $2k/month  for infant-toddler care 4 years ago. That included more hours (although she still was only there from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm), food, and an activity.  The same center, different site, wanted about $2400/month, neither including food nor activities. 

From Care: 
Your monthly budget $1,549/mo

Gross pay $1,523

Taxes $152

Savings from tax breaks-$200

Care.com HomePay $74

Your caregiver's take-home $1,218/mo
 ($40.19/hr)


What is initially attractive about Care is that I believe they streamline the tax paperwork, background checks, and payment. If we go this route, I'm hoping to make the employee paperwork as straightforward as possible. I don't want it messing up our taxes, or causing more work/ $ for our tax guy to fix come February. 

Not to be rude, but I think it should read $40.19/DAY.  The math does not work out to $40.19/hr.

[Deleted]

Care.com is a piece of crap. If you're going to use a payroll service use Intuit Online HOUSEHOLD. It's $22/month and walks you through all the steps.

[dcn]

I feel like that 1218 take home is per week with their math. Not month.

[Deleted]

Jul 16, 2014 13:40:44 GMT -5 @kar said:

Jul 16, 2014 13:36:05 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

Care.com is a piece of crap. If you're going to use a payroll service use Intuit Online HOUSEHOLD. It's $22/month and walks you through all the steps.

I think they are partnering with Breedlove now though? Breedlove has been the lead nanny pay service for years at least. I have heard good things about Intuit, but they are (or at least were) not available in all states.

Fair enough. I haven't used the payroll service, but the site in general gives me enough pause. I really like Intuit and it is far cheaper than Breedlove, though a bit more hands on.

[quickstepstar]

To get the going take home rate use this: www.care.com/babysitting-rates
I usually bump that up by a few dollars, but that will give you an idea.

[anna7602]

I am not going to touch Care's math. When we had a nanny, we guaranteed her a minimum number of hours per week whether I actually needed her or not. I was working a combo of a traditional job with predictable hours and freelancing at the time. My freelance schedule was all over the place, but if I didn't need the nanny, I either gave her the day off (still paying her) or used that time to run errands or do other stuff.

We also did everything through DH's employer to pay her on the books. So, they dealt with witholdings, worker's comp insurance and things like that. We paid her $12/hour cash. I don't remember what this grossed up to when the witholdings were factored in, but it definitely wasn't anywhere close to $40/hour.

When I went entirely to freelancing, we hired a different nanny and paid her $15/hour due to her having less guaranteed hours per week. Again, I'm not sure what this grossed up to since H's workplace handled it.

4 years later, I am now looking at an average of $17-$18/hour should I need occasional help in the fall after the baby is here. I am not looking to hire a dedicated nanny since I still don't have a sense of my, freelance projects. My plan is just to occasionally use one (or more?) of the nannies who currently work for families with children DD's age who have available hours during the school day (they pick up the kids in the afternoon). I need to talk to DH's employer about how this works officially.

[jackie011]

Jul 16, 2014 11:09:39 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

When I plugged some numbers into Care.com's calculator, it looked like nanny take home pay would be $38/hour  to $44/hour.  We live in a HCOL area. Do you think that amount is realistic or too low to recruit an attractive candidate pool? What are some other things I should consider? 

TIA!

ijack  BirdGirl jenny1980 

Considering I have a teaching degree, 13 years of teaching experience, and I and teach preschool at a high end school in our area and that is nearly 3x my hourly pay, I'd say you would have no problem attracting desirable candidates!