PT Nanny Pay

I think 12.50 is good, as long as the meal prep is very minimal, such as dishing out food that you put in the crock pot, ordering and serving pizza, or making sandwiches.

My daughter is a junior in HS and gets 12-15 per hour for babysitting. No other duties included but of course she cleans up the "mess" they make while in her care so the house is as they left it.

What you're asking for is a lot more than baby sitting. I personally would want the sitter to focus on the kids and not be distracted by chores. That's a lot to do in just three hours time even for a Mom. She's a teenage sitter not a maid or cook.

$12 an hour with no chores. Let the nanny focus solely on your kids. I'm shocked at what some of you pay for a nanny! I'm starting to think I need to get into that line of work! I have a BA in sociology and many years of experience working in mental health and I've never made more than $15 an hour. Crazy.

I would think $10-12/hr minimum.
We pay our nephew (high school student) 10/hr and he doesn't do homework, tidying up OR cooking!

I live in the same area and think $12 an hour is fine, but you might have trouble finding a high school student who can take on the level of responsibility you need.

Most of the teenagers in the North DFW suburbs tend to be wrapped up in extra-curriculars, school activities, and friends, and don't have much need for spending cash.

This is exactly what my 18 year old daughter did this summer, except instead of school she was shuttling kids from swim/tennis practice and getting dinner started, no housework. She was paid $15/hr.
We live in a pretty high income area, however, it seems that at LEAST $10/hour would be appropriate for picking up kids, helping with homework, light cooking and cleaning. That's a lot more responsibility (and takes more skill/intelligence) than running a fry machine or being a cashier.

What you have to consider is you are not asking for a playcare worker or a shift manager. Each of them have more than one person responsible for the care and they have people over them, around them.....

I just don't understand why everyone likes to throw in light cleaning with daycare. So you have trouble fitting in cleaning with taking care of your kids but you want to believe some kid can do it and for a little bit of money?

So you want a driver, tutor, child care, cleaning lady, and a chef and you are thinking you are going to get quality for about 10 an hour?

I paid a college student 20 dollars for one hour to just hang out with my kids and get them to the bus, three days a week. Why did I pay so much, I wanted it done right, every time!

For ten an hour you could get live kids. Everything else you are asking for something to be done wrong.

Well because why else would you make a babysitter be a housekeeper unless you can't do it yourself? I would never ask a sitter to cook, clean, an tutor unless I couldn't do that myself.

I am in your area (Plano/Allen) and the going rate for a teen sitter averages $10 an hour which does NOT include, school pick up, light housework, helping with homework and starting dinner. I would certainly do a driver check on this student if I were having a student pick up my child and driving with her. On top of that.... the hourly pay typically goes up if there is more than 1 child.

My daughter is almost 20 , a college sophomore and living on her on in West Plano. She has regular families she sits for in our neighborhood and is booked at least once a week with one or more of them. She has NEVER set a rate for sitting since she started watching children (these same families) when she was 13. She routinely gets anywhere from $100-$150 cash for ONE weekend night of babysitting. The number of children vary for each family from 1 to 4 children.

You are asking a LOT of a high school student if you expect what you posted in your question. You are not talking about a regular sitter... you are talking part time nanny.

I paid my high school student sitter (who had babysat for us regularly over 3 years) for 1 child and 3 dogs $500 cash for spending 2 nights, making sure my daughter got to/from school ok for 3 days. I also paid my house/pet sitter for daily visits to care for the dogs while the girls were in school.

I personally think you are asking too much from a teen who also has home work and a social life. If my daughter received an offer as such with those responsibilities, I would encourage her NOT to take the job because it sounds like you want a lot of quality/responsibility for the least amount of pay. Remember... You get what you pay for.

We paid our sitters very well because we wanted to keep them and we knew our child was safe. Our weekly date night averaged $80-$100 with a guarantee that if we cancelled for ANY reason, the sitter was guaranteed $40 for because she booked us for that time period.

There are a lot of agencies around here who have part time nannies who might fit your bill better as far as your expectations go. You can find those agencies located in the monthly local magazines for Dallas Child and others.

Check your neighborhood website or HOA FB page if you have one. You could have a neighbor who also needs a part time nanny and you could share.

Best wishes.

ETA: I am sorry Sadie, that you have had a bad experience, but all sitters do not sit and text nonstop....Not when they are motivated with good pay and spend time with children such as arts and crafts, etc.

My daughter only sits for her regular families because she has been burned by accepting a job with another family, then not able to commit to a regular family, then the family that booked her first just decides not to go out that night and then she ends up with no pay that weekend night. I know there are a lot of sitters out there who do text and have no respect for the parents but there are some crappy parents out there as well who have no respect for the time that a sitter committed to for a particular day.

What's the difference between a babysitter and a nanny?
What you are looking for is someone to be there to watch the kids after school until you get home and keep them alive until you do - that's pretty much the most important qualification.
Everything else is a nice-to-have but kind of irrelevant.
Besides high school/college age kids, where could you find a retired elderly lady who could do this?
When we were growing up our Mom hired her college friends Mom to look after us and did most of what you're looking for in a baby sitter.
I have no idea what she paid her (this was in the 60's and 70's).
High school/college kids can get busy with studies, after school activities and social life - an elderly lady (in her 50's or 60's) might be more settled and reliable.

For transportation, housework, meal preparation AND childcare for three children, that is insultingly low, regardless of the age of the sitter.

You are expecting way too much for WAY too little. Cut out the housework and meal prep and up the wage to $12/hour. That's reasonable for a high schooler. Or hire an adult, keep your original expectations, and pay $20/hour.

You might find a HS girl who has lots of experience caring for younger siblings. Otherwise, when I've had HS kids, what seems so easy and obvious to me, isn't to them. Same for college kids and I've seen what my friends have experienced. But they also have gotten some great college kids. If your friends pay them the same or less, why not look at college kids? $12.50 sounds fine for your area. I'd just be prepared for pretty high turnover. That's what I've seen. We have had a full time nanny for years so I have some experience. All professional, adults nannies and even then, nothing is perfect. So I would expect a HS kid is going to make mistake and not be used to juggling things like you and I can.

I think paying a babysitter more than minimum wage is crazy. People that work in child care with 20 school age kids by themselves in their class are making minimum wage.

Every person in the facility is responsible for a certain group of kids. The director is the one answering the phone, doing tours, ordering groceries, and more. The cook comes in prepares the food then leaves.

If a child care worker is absent the director may step in and take that class but I can assure you, if she has the opportunity she'll be calling in someone that works as a permanent substitute, going around to the different places and working as called in. They get minimum wage too but no benefits.

So no, $10 per hour is not insulting. It's insulting to me when high school kids want easy money for less than people who've gone to school and have degrees are getting for the same work.

Offer her the $10 per hour and if she doesn't take it I am sure there will be others that will beg for the opportunity to do it.

I was paid $2 per hour per child when I was a nanny. I usually had 2 kids full days and if I had an extra child that was under 8 years of age I got $2 more per hour.

IF IF IF kids over age 8 were home I didn't get paid for them because they could have stayed home alone and I wasn't responsible for them.

I got $5 extra per day for keeping the laundry going all day for 7 kids and 2 adults. I got and extra $5 for the day IF IF IF "I" cooked dinner completely and cleaned up after myself.

Minimum wage was $5 something.

The main difference with a babysitter and a nanny is that the nanny only works in your home. The nanny has set hours and is expected to be there regardless of feeling poorly. If they are truly sick then the mom can decide what to do at that point. I have laid on the couch many days when I was a nanny because the mom needed to go to work. Mom's don't get a day off when they're sick so she didn't mind if I came to work.

A babysitter can watch kids in their own home or yours. They get a phone call every once in a while and they're given a choice of working or not.

If you have a nanny in your home you can choose to hire them as contract labor and let them know you'll be claiming their pay on your taxes and they are responsible for paying all their own taxes. That you'll need their social security number for their taxes. This way you don't have to keep part of their wages and send it in each quarter.

I always filed on my income when I was a nanny. One of the families I nannied for was a CPA and they paid me by check and claimed my wages as child care expenses. I never had a problem.

Having been a nanny myself, I would not hand this job off to a high school student. If it were me, I'd do as B suggested and find an adult who knows how to run a house, multitask the cleaning and cooking along with the homework and general caregiving that kids need. These are skills gained from experience, not necessarily 'taught' on the fly. You want someone who has some confidence and competency cooking, who can make substitutions easily without having to bother you at work if you are out of one thing or another. (Kids will do that to us.) You want someone who can know how to check in with the kids in regard to homework, who can look over the basics and let them know if they are approaching their assignments correctly.

And you want someone who is self-motivated to do a good job without other people looking over their shoulder. There are some high schoolers, but as it's been pointed out, you may also need to have substitute/backup care as well.

These are just things to consider. Playcare workers are often not being pulled in two or three different directions with the demands in the realms you describe. If I were hiring someone for this task in my neck of the woods, I would be looking for quality and wouldn't be paying less than $15 per hour. Our teen sitters make about $7-10 based on their own rate and how long they have been with us. This is just for play and making a basic dinner (mac and cheese sort of thing), no housecleaning, no homework, one kid. Something to think about.

ETA: I found your revised question quite interesting. "Assuming the worst"? You need to remember that in your original question, you did not state which tasks you would ask for the caregiver to do. To put it back on us, the responders, as 'assuming the worst', is just confusing. For those of us who do/did this professionally, your original question (before you changed it) seemed to imply that there would be dishes and cooking involved on a daily basis. Please don't put your poor communication off on those of us who did take the time to thoughtfully reply.

When you say 'pick-up' do you mean drive or walk home?

I would think $12-15 an hour for random unreliable hours (friday night for a date). If she has a set schedule and can depend on the money you can offer her a flat rate of $120 a week ($8 an hour).

You have to remember a play-care worker can call in sick and be easily replace at a moments notice with other workers (a director can fill in if short staffed). If you want her to stick around, make it worth it to her. Normally they start off good and then go down hill (text the whole time).

I think the problem is that you think this is a sweet gig. It's not. Taking care of kids is hard work, especially if they are not your own. My kids don't give me the run around they give our sitters sometimes. Why? Because they know I won't put up with it. The sitters get tested at least one time, if not twice.

So we pay our siters $10 an hour (our kids are 7, 9, and 11) and it's basically to make sure our house doesn't burn down. The kids LOVE when the sitters are involved with them, but they don't have to. We also prefer it. Those sitters end up getting more money and better bonuses at the holidays and end of year.

When I was in high school (graduated in 2001), I had a very similar gig you are talking to. It was great for me because the kids were old enoguh to do their own homework (I didn't have to do it with them other than answer a question if they had it), I had to serve dinner (but it was already made), I wiped the counters after dinner, I folded their laundry (but did not put it away), and took the older child to her tutoring sessions. They also lived right next door, so I could simply walk over. That was 15 years ago almost, since I did it my junior year in 2000.

I think $12 an hour is a good place to start, but know you are asking a LOT of them and they also have homework and enjoy free time. Just don't go in to this with the attitude of you are doing them a favor, because you're not. They are doing you a favor. Our last sitter (that we had for 3 years) told me the one thing she loved was that we understood mornings weren't alway smooth and easy. If I saw her at Starbucks I'd buy her a coffee, at lunch I'd buy her meal, I'd randomly leave little tips for her, and ALWAYS told her how much she meant to our family. Always...she knew we didn't take her for granted.

I get that you think this is a "sweet" gig but really, teenagers have many options and choices of how to spend their time. I remember quitting my fast food job when I was a junior in HS because even though I liked having some spending cash it just wasn't worth the hours and commute it took. I would rather be broke and hanging with my friends than sweating in polyester over a vat of taco meat.
So if you want to hire a quality person, pay her (or him) a quality wage, something that will make them WANT to come work for you. I think in any area that would be at LEAST twenty percent above minimum wage.
This is what the free market is all about right? LOL!

I think this job is great--if you can find the right person. I would have loved it! A lot of teens these days don't have to do chores, so s/he might be lacking in the chore department. Also, is this 5 days a week? I worked in h.s., but I'm not sure my mom would have let me/wanted me to work 5 school days (2:30-5:30, I'm assuming). I worked about 10-12 hours a week, but it was one school night, one weekend night, and part of a weekend day.

This sitter is responsible for twice as much work as she should be. If she needs to bring them home from school every day, I assume she is walking because most teens do not have a license for driving other than their own family members (and if she is old enough to have a senior rather than provision/junior license then you also have to contribute toward her gas and insurance) - so I assume she is walking 3 kids in the rain as well as the nice weather. There's a premium for that. She gets home and has to manage 3 kids' homework, and you still want her to put away clothes and empty the dishwasher? Or are you saying your kids are supposed to put away their own clothes and empty the dishwasher and it's just the sitter's job to make sure it happens? A child age 5 and up can (and should) put away clothes (maybe with help to hang things on a closet rod that's too high). A 5 year old can put away pots, pans and plastic utensils from the dishwasher, and a 7 year old can handle plates, and an 8 year old can handle glasses (with possible help reaching the higher shelves in the cabinets).

On top of this, you're going to take time to teach a teen to cook, and then have them start dinner, working at the stove, which means she is not watching your kids? I think that's a recipe for disaster, not dinner.

You want a reliable sitter who works for you 15 hours a week without fail. There's no back-up if she gets annoyed or feels taken advantage of. Playcare workers have extra help (they are not alone in the room with kids of varying ages!) and minimum wage is ridiculous (a poverty wage even if they work 40 hours). So it's good you are not expecting to pay minimum wage. I think waiting for Christmas for a bonus might be a very long wait - you have to keep teens motivated, and you are expecting this teen to juggle a lot including kids of varying ages who may or may not be all that cooperative. So, if she needs to stay on top of a petulant child, there goes dinner! (Same thing that happens to adult moms - that's when the kids get plopped in front of the TV!) Also, are you saying your 3 kids will never have a playmate and she'll be expected to watch yet another child? That they won't be outside on bikes or playing in the yard which she will have to supervise instead of putting away laundry?

I'd put more responsibility on your own kids - if you're gone 5 afternoons a week, they can start to share age-appropriate responsibilities. Most evening babysitters make $10-15 an hour and that's when the kids are in bed for part of the evening and they're just sitting around. Then I'd scale back a bit for the sitter - what's optional and worthy of a bonus at the end of the week or every 2 weeks, what's essential. Pay for the essentials at $12.50 and then give a bonus (at least once a month) for the extras. Figure out a way to keep track of the extras - like she writes them on the calendar or keeps a chart for you - and then count them up at the end of the week/month for a bonus/tip. People tip the paper delivery guy for just shoving a paper in the box, so tipping someone who gives personal service (like a waiter at 20%) needs to be figured into your budget.

Sorry, I think your expectations are not realistic. You need an adult not a teenager if the list above is what you expect from a part time nanny.

Get an adult--retired person, grandmother type... Ask at your church or post on Craigslist. Your rate seems fine.

I would not want a teen girl or college girl around my significant other...

I would start with $12.50 an hour and would assume that after homework and a snack, the kids are allowed to watch TV, play video games, play outside or otherwise occupy themselves while she or he takes care of the other chores, just like an at-home parent would do. When I hire a sitter for my younger kids (8 & 10) my expectations are just that they have the kids clean up after themselves and then I want them to take them to the park, for a walk, or actively play with them. On the days that I don't hire a sitter but instead have one of my two teenagers watch them, it's more like what you describe and on those days, the teenagers get them home, get them a snack and started on homework and then pay the kids minimal attention (at their age they don't need much attention and can entertain themselves) and otherwise do their own chores, which include emptying the dishwasher, starting dinner, etc. It's a busy afternoon as they have their own homework to do as well but they manage just fine. I'm sure you'll find someone who would be happy to do this for $12.50 an hour.

I think around $10 an hour would be fair, no less though with three kids and housekeeping.