I would like to remain anonymous. I work for a wonderful, generous and considerate family in central NJ. I mainly care for a two year old boy and part-time for his 3-1/2 yr old brother before and after his 9-3 school day. My hours are 7:30 to 5:30 Monday - Friday. My question is they recently had another boy and I will be taking care of him beginning in June. MB says she will increase my salary then but we didn't discuss an amount. I was thinking $100 more each week to care for the infant too. My regular salary is $650 per week. I have been using my car to take the boys to school and activities but they are purchasing a van for me to use starting in June. How much do you think is fair for the infant?
I think $100 is generous on the part of the nanny. She might want to ask for more to have room for negotiation.
ReplyDeleteNormally I would say $100, which is $2 an hour as you are working 50 hours is fine. You are only making $13 an hour now however, so that only brings you up to $15 an hour. I think that is too low for two, and for part of the day three children especially as one is a newborn.
ReplyDeleteWhen discussing it with your employers, I would approach it in terms of what your new hourly rate will be for 2-3 charges, rather than how much raise the new baby merits.
A newborn baby is a lot of work w/frequent feedings, diaper changes, etc. I would ask 3-4 dollars more per hr.
ReplyDeleteI agree with just my two cents. You are going to have your hands full! Taking care of a two year old and an infant is going to be a lot of work and fairly stressful. Add to that the 3-1/2 yr old for a few hours and it's going to be a lot.
ReplyDeleteI cared for an infant, nearly two year old, and nine year old, and it was challenging. I was paid $15/hr. But since it's a 3 year old and not a 9 year old in your case, I would expect more.
I'm not saying at all that it's impossible, but you will be busy and you deserve to be compensated accordingly. Probably $3/hr extra would be reasonable.
I forgot to mention, I was working in North Jersey.
ReplyDeleteI would just say to be sure they don't think the VAN, which will be used to drive their children around in is a PERK to replace a raise.
ReplyDeleteIf you're happy with $100/week, I say ask for that.
OR consider asking for a percentage raise... such as "I would like a raise for increased responsibilities... I was thinking in the range of 15-30 %, what are your thoughts?" You currently make $13. 15% raise is $1.95/hr (so basically $100) putting you at about $15/hr. 20% = $3 increase, or $150/week
25% = $3.75 raise = $187.5/week
30% = 4.50, or $225/week
None of that is out of the range of possibilities. I think you're fairly underpaid right now (unless you live in?) and can reasonably expect at least $17/hr to care for two small children.
Just so you don't feel uneasy about asking, please know that we live in Central Jersey and have our Nanny care for our 4 year old son only. She uses our car, takes him to school by 8:30A, picks him up at noon, takes him to swim from 1 to 1:30p, fixes his lunch, washes his clothes, puts him to nap, takes him to playdate (library, park etc.), prepares his dinner, then gets him ready for bed. Her day is over around 7. This is a typical day and we pay her $650/wk. THIS IS FOR ONE CHILD ONLY.
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