Hello everyone, I recently posted something. I do a share for 2 families and family #1 is expecting a new baby in March. After speaking with them we decided we would try to move forward with sharing with both families. The problem I am having now is the pay increase and what is appropriate. Each family pays me $325/week. (No taxes taken out but I do my own taxes at the end of the year so please dont even go there with the are you legal, etc part---I do the right thing and pay my taxes and I am legal!!!).How much of an increase do you feel the family who is adding a second child should give me? We spoke last night and they offered me $50 a week increase and I do not feel that is anywhere close to being fair. Am I being out of line?? What are everyones thoughts? Keep in mind, I have been with them for 2 years and will be up for my annual review/pay raise in November and also keep in mind that adding a newborn into the mix is going to be a huge adjustment and a huge adjustment to my workload/day. Thanks for any suggestions.
$50 per week for additional child is what we have given as a raise in the past also. I have heard $25-50 as the most common raises for weekly pay, or $1-2/hour for part-time. The 2010 Park Slope Parents survey also seems to support these numbers with mean salary for one child at $548 and 2 kids at $596. The highest raise I have ever personally known someone to give is $100/week extra, but that was 2 kids 15 months apart in age. For annual raise I use the national Cost of Living estimate of 3-5% increase which is usually $25-50 weekly raise.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason the raise is often smaller than you are expecting is because it often coincides with the older child starting some type of preschool for a few hours a day, so the Nanny is often not with both kids 100% of the time. Also, the older child is often becoming much easier at about 3 yrs old. But regardless of the logic, $50 is the common market raise I have seen for an additional child. However, I do not have personal experience with handling this in a nanny share so perhaps it is different in that case. I know nanny shares are very common in SF Bay Area so you could post on the Berkeley Parents Network to get some feedback there.
Finally, as an aside (not to berate you, but in case you are not aware), nannies cannot be independent contractors. They cannot legally file their own taxes at year end. It's great that you are trying to do the right thing, but if you truly want to "be legal" and have no risks, then your family needs to withhold weekly SS and Medicare from your wages, and pay their portion of Federal taxes/disability/unemployment/worker's comp insurance. Your current setup does not protect you in case of job injury and won't allow you to get unemployment if you lose your job. However, it is the best solution if the family refuses to pay you on the books because at least you are building SS quarters and doing the best you can.
I'm not sure where you live but I have worked as a nanny in several states and typically I would expect around 50/week as a raise. At a maximum I would expect maybe 75/week raise. Dont take less than what you are comfortable with though or you'll begin to resent your job. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThat's a 15% increase to your salary, which I think is pretty generous. In my private sector jobs, if I get an additional 6%, that would be remarkable.
ReplyDeleteHow is that right that the family with 2 children would only be paying $50 extra per week? It would seem to me in this type of nanny share the family with 2 pay 2/3 and famil900y with 1 pay 1/3. Also, imo $700 for kids under the age of three is ridiculous. Id try to find another job. Im not sure where you live but here in NYC, I make $900 for one child.
ReplyDeleteOp here,
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify a few things..I live in NYC and what I am making right now is on the small scale of what an average salary is for 45 hours a week.
I think that if it was for one family and they offered me $50/week I would think that was fine but since there is a third child in the mix I feel that makes it different. If they give me a $2 raise per hour ( which would be $90 more a week) that still means they are paying less than $10/hour for 2 children. I think that is pretty damn fair in NYC. I also agree that $700( what is being offered) for 3 children is just too low and not worth it.
Thank you NYCmom for your suggestion of Berkley parents, I will definitely look that up. And I do understand that having the parents pay into medicare, SSI, disability etc would be the best thing but when I was looking for a job I interviewed with dozens of families and not one wanted to pay on the books! Its not me, it was them. I needed a job so I took what I could but at least I am doing the right thing and doing my taxes on my own at the end of the year. It kills me and I end up paying a lot but I could never cheat the system and work off of the books.
Thanks again for everyone's feedback, keep it coming:)
I think they are being cheap. You are a NY nanny. They should increase your pay to double that, at least a hundred a week.
ReplyDeleteI got a 50 dollar a week raise when my boss had a baby. I was already watching the 3 yr old.
ReplyDeleteI think 50 dollars is fair because yes it is a lot more work in the beginning but it does get easier. If they give you more now when it's harder are you willing to take a pay cut when it gets easier?
TC,
ReplyDeleteYou were taking care of ONE other child not TWO other children. She will have three children now for only $50 more. They are being cheap. Plain and simple.
If you work in NYC and make under 400 a week for two-three children, then you are completely getting ripped off. I make 600, 40hrs a week for one child in Boston, and just turned down a family offering me 16.50 for a toddler and infant. I refuse to work with 2 children for under 18 an hour. And in a nanny share you should be making more because your working with two different families, and their cost is cut in half.
ReplyDeleteWere you the one that works for the family who is refusing to pay you while they go on leave?
Nycnanny She made X amount watching 2 kids correct? So now that she is watching 3 she got a 50 dollar a week raise, I think that's fair.
ReplyDeleteWhen my boss decides to have another one I will probably only get another 50 dollar a week raise when I start watching the newborn even though there will then be 3.
She shouldn't get a huge raise simply because she went from 2 to 3 if she went from 2 to 4 then yes 50 bucks insnt enough but just adding ONE more kid to the mix does not mean that 50 bucks a week isn't fair.
And again the op mentioned that it's harder to watch a newborn...and it is I will agree 100% with that but if that's going to be her justification for wanting more than 50 a week then will she be willing to take a pay cut when the child gets older and isn't as hard?
No, BostonNanny, OP is not making under $400. She is making $325x2 families = $650. They are offering to increase it to $700 ($375 from one family, $325 from other), not yet counting her annual raise which I would guess is probably about $25/family. So after the new baby and raise, I would guess she would be in the $750 range.
ReplyDeleteTC, you make an excellent point. Usually if a nanny is flexible and has a good fit with a family, it can be a long relationship. During the course of the relationship, the job will be harder/easier/harder/easier with kids getting older, starting school, new babies, homework, etc. If your goal is to stick with a family a long time, you do need to be flexible to make that happen.
Oh okay thx nycmom, that makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteIt's still kind of low for NYC standards but if you have a great relationship then okay. I would say shootfor 75-100 because again...this is a nannyshare, she is still dealing with 2 families and the stress of making both happy plus a newborn.
I will receive $2/hr raise for a second child per my contract. But I think it is more typical for nannies to receive $1/hr or less. At 50 hours/wk $50/week sounds fair to me. If they are doing a nanny share and you are receiving an additional yearly raise from the families then they may not be able to afford more than that. $50 sounds appropriate to me, but if you can't make it work on that then maybe you should switch jobs.
ReplyDeleteI will say though that it should be more fair for the parents, why should one pay 325 a week for one kid while the other pays 375 for two. Besides the fact that now the family with the one child has even less one on one time with nanny because of the new baby, but that is something the parents need to work out between themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's not fair to the family with only one child to have to pay only $50.00 less than the family with two. What I would do is come up with a total amount you want, to care for all three children, and then divide it by three. The family with two children pays two thirds and the family with one, pays one third.
ReplyDelete$50 is pretty standard for a new baby in NYC. What I think is off is your base pay. For the 45 hours you are working, if your employers weren't in a nanny share, they would be paying $675 at $15 an hour. I am guessing they took a suggested figure for a nanny salary, and split it in two. That is not how a share is usually computed. Because it is more to deal with for the nanny with two families, she should make more than she would with the same number of children in one family. They could be paying you considerably more, and still be saving a significant amount by being in a share.
ReplyDeleteI also think it is extremely unfair for them not to pay your payroll taxes when they are getting such a huge savings with the share. ( I know what you mean about having a hard time finding a family willing to pay on the books. I've had the same problem. It seems only lawyers, politicians, celebrities and nycmom pay on the books in NYC.! )
I would take nycnanny's suggestion to divide the salary you want in 2/3 & 1/3, accept the $50 for the newborn and ask for the payroll taxes.
Manhattan Nanny, you stole the words out of my mouth! A nanny share is supposed to be beneficial for ALL parties. Otherwise, why do it? The families get a significant savings, along with the peace of mind of having a great nanny. What does the nanny get? In theory, she should be getting paid more than she would if she only worked for one family. She has to deal with two sets of bosses, two parenting/discipline styles, two schedules to coordinate, etc...
ReplyDeleteOP, they should definitely be paying you on the books! They should also be paying more. In a perfect world, they would agree to up your take-home pay AND start taking care of the taxes. However, it sounds to me like maybe each family really can't afford a nanny on their own, so they took advantage of the nanny share trend, seeing it as a cheap way out. Negotiate the best you can. Maybe in addition to your annual raise, they could give you a 6-month raise in the coming year to sort of slowly even things out? Good luck!
OP, I like Someone's Nanny advice that the family w/one child pay 1/3 and the family w/two pay you 2/3. That seems only fair to me. The fact that you are doing a NannyShare would mean to me that you definitely should be making more than you would if you were watching three children from the same family. A nanny share is more stressful for the nanny. She must work for two separate families which means having two sets of bosses to keep happy. And you know if one family has a problem w/you, they may unduly influence the other family as well. Also, if you are unhappy about the pay, please keep negotiating before you are locked in. Your doubts about the pay already to me mean you are having red flags already..so negotiate, negotiate, negotiate..until you are satisfied. If you accept pay that seems to little to you, you will grow to resent your job and the parents as well. Bitterness may build up and eventually no one will benefit from this situation. I think $50/week is too low. Why? Consider the age. A newborn is a lot of work. Frequent feedings (bottle warm-ups/burpings), frequent diaper changes, lots of crying/soothing, colic, etc...and this will take a lot of time away from the other two children.
ReplyDeleteAlthough nanny shares are not that common in NYC, I have looked into them a bit. Typically the nanny makes about 1.3X-1.5X the salary she would working for one family and each family pays about .6X-.75X their normal rate. In real numbers it is usually closer to each family paying $9-10/hr instead of $15 and the nanny making $18-20/hr instead of $15. I do agree that $650 for a nanny share is on the low side, though still think the 2nd child raise at about $50 is right.
ReplyDeleteI would think OP's base salary should have started at about $800 with each family contributing $400. And with the additional child and each family raise it would rise to $900. However, I'm not sure OP can easily get those kind of numbers since you are already being underpaid.
I should also mention that she said that the $50 raise would include my pay raise/review. So the theory that I would actually be making $750-$800 in the end is not correct. I think what it boils down to is that $50 raise is not unacceptable; what the problem is, is that I am not being paid fairly in the 1st place. I agree with all of you. I took the position because it is literally a few blocks from my house and I do get days off a lot due to their flexible schedules at times-the job definitely does have its perks. But in any event, I think you are all right. And I also think that I wont be able to negotiate what I want and that I should probably start looking for something new. I just will not work for $700 for three children in NYC where I can be getting a lot more for just one child. Thanks you everyone for your advice!!
ReplyDeleteGood Luck OP. Sure the job market is tight now..but that is no excuse for families to underpay us hard-working nannies! We all need to make a living just like the next guy and we also work just as hard as everyone else does! If you do not think you are being paid a fair amount, then by all means move forward.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, Two Cents! I am currently looking for a position in NYC from another part of the country, and having some trouble...I'm sure you will have a big advantage being there already, OP! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOP, I think that is probably a good decision, because (I didn't want to be the pessimist), but I don't see this situation working out very long between the 2 families. One family adding another child changes the whole dynamic of the share, not just financially but in terms of time and attention, and feeling like you are getting what you paid for.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
It isn't fair. They need to pay you on the books instead. You may be paying twice as much as you need to in taxes if you're doing it yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck,
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is not fair that people in NYC don't want to pay their nannies legally but it is what it is. At least she is paying taxes. I hope that the OP finds a good family who will pay her legally. These people sound like cheap idiots.
Poor OP!
ReplyDeleteYes your base pay is so low. I dont have an accurate fair idea of nanny share. People here have given you really good advice, so take it. Yes, plz look for a new job, they never ever going to give u a raise that will compensate what u fairly should be making as of now.
Sometimes taking somewhat "flexible jobs" become unfair. I have a job like that and they do take advantage of you.
If I were to do a nanny share here in NYC, i would charge 10-11 dollars per hour for 1 family with 1 child. This IS so cheap, that no nanny will take this job, so they have to opt for a nanny share.
what the FUCK! who is the idiot who said children get EASY by age 3? even if they spend those pathetic 3 hours a day in pre school, u still work double! prep food for 2, reason to leave the house and come back for an additonal time bc u have to pick up the kid from school. Still clean 2xs
and god forbid! the "so-easy" 3 yr old child starts choking, you still have to save his life because he is your charge who is still practically a little kid.