I am a very experienced nanny, I have been in the biz for 10 years but I have never encountered this situation before so I'm hoping for some advice.
I nanny full time for 3 kids aged 6, 3, & 10 months. I work only 4 days a week but about 42-44 hours in total. My family pays me hourly. Our contract states that they will provide me with 52 weeks of income a year and in exchange I do 10 hours of free babysitting a month. (They pay me OT the weeks I go over). They are a super family and I love working for them.
We had a miscommunication though recently. At the beginning of my time with them I was told I would have a specific week off (for them to travel as a family). I naturally made plans. A couple weeks ago I was asked by the mom if I could work that week as they are no longer taking a family trip, only a couples trip. I remarked no, that I had plans, but agreed to do a couple nights over the weekend before to help out until the grandparents could arrive. Now I find out its 3 nights, about 72 hours in total. And using 4 of my initial days off. I typically charge $100 a night, for 12 hours and my day rate during the day for the other 12. The baby doesn't always sleep through the night though so I'm considering bumping that to $125. Is this a fair price? We are looking at over a thousand dollars. I'm honestly a little annoyed that it's eating into my time and now I don't have a day off in between so I'll be doing 8 days straight the last 3, 24 hrs a day. My nanny friends assure me yes, I'm well worth the $, and I'm doing them a favor. Should I just pull the trigger? Send them the estimate?
Don't let them walk over you. But after all is said and done- I would charge $100 for overnight.
ReplyDelete$100 per night plus your 12 day hours is fair. I completely understand your frustration though
ReplyDeleteI need to read it again, but I don't understand why you provide any hours of free babysitting.
ReplyDeleteThe 10 hours of free babysitting is called 'hour banking' and is illegal; bring this up ASAP-- never sit for free.
ReplyDeleteHow I do overnights:
I charge my normal hourly rate from the moment the children awake in the morning until they ALL go to bed at night; overtime after 9 hours (my state's employment laws). Night time when the children are asleep-- I reduce my rate to my state's minimum wage, all wake ups that the child needs me for is charged at normal rate; if the wake ups mean I don't get 5 hours of consecutive sleep then the whole night is at regular rate.
I'm expensive; I like overnights for the money; but actually really hate them. I don't sleep very well.
By all means charge $125 for the overnight-- the 10 month old will wake up.
I've never done an overnight, but the family I'm currently working for has overnight doulas to care for their 3 month old. I caught a glimpse of the log sheet once and they make $33 an hour! So, I was under the impression that a nanny would charge more over night (because no one wants to work all night), not less. $100 for 12 hours over night seems painfully low to me. If they had arranged for you to have this week off far in advance, I wouldn't have agreed to work any of your days off. I mean, I'm sure it's tough to say no when they need help, but it's on them to figure out what to do.
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