Hourly Pay for Babysitters?

S.-I live in Barrington and I have a two year old and a 3 month old. I have been paying my sitters $7-8 but that was before the new baby. I will probably be paying $8-10 now. I hope that helps!

I have been paying $5.00 an hour for a teenage babysitter.

We have paid $10/hour for our 20 month old son. My understanding is that the going rate is $10 for one child and a bit more for more than one. (We live in Libertyville.)

I hope this helps. This is a great question...something I have wondered about myself. Thanks for asking.

$10/hour downtown in the Loop. I've paid $12/hour for a really good one with a degree in childhood development, though.

I have two types of babysitters - one that comes and just watches the kids - I pay her $7.00/hour.

The other one I have comes and cleans, does some laundry and watches the kids - I pay her 12.00/hour.

If you just using someone for a couple of hours to strictly watch the kids at home - $7.00/hour seems reasonable.

I pay our 13 year-old babysitter $8.00 and hour for one child, however I've been told I could have gotten away with $5.00/hour

This topic recently came up in our
Gymboree class in Geneva IL. It seems the norm runs between $6 - $10 per hour depending on the age, experience etc.. of the sitter. For example a teen from your neighborhood may accept $6 per hour while a student from the local junior college majoring in Early Childhood Development might want $10 per hour. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Hi S.,

When I used to live in Waukegan, I paid my sitter a flat rate of $30/day (if I took longer than 8 hours) or $3/hr. Now that I live in Chicago, I pay this woman $5/hr (but I feel like I'm overpaying because she doesn't watch any other kids). So, my assumption is anywhere between $3-5/hr should be fine.

I have heard everything from $5 to $12 per hour. I am in the same area and refuse to pay that much. My bottom line is $7 per hour. I would be curious to hear what you learn from other moms.