[Jane01]

I have hired an overnight nanny for when my husband and I are both away on work trips. Previously we've juggled between us and have never needed a nanny overnight, but this year that doesn't seem possible.

Does anyone have any advice for me about how to pay the nanny for the overnight hours? Our children are primary school age, go to bed at around 7pm and don't wake up until 6.30-7pm the next day (no overnight wakings). Usually hiring a nanny is easy: no. hours x hourly rate. How does this translate to hours when the nanny is asleep? We usually pay the nanny $25/hour, so an overnight stay would be quite expensive. However, I want to reward her for the inconvenience of being responsible for our children and staying away from home.

I was thinking of a flat rate, any ideas on how much? We're in a capital city.

Thanks

[sqawk]

I saw your post a few days ago but didn't get a chance to reply til now. I dont have experience with an overnight nanny but do use a nanny during the day while i am at work, so do have to think about payrates etc.

I think I would use to different pay rates. ie pay $25/hr for when the nanny is actively looking after the children or doing prep/housework etc, and one for the time when she is free of duties but still has to be at the house. Im not sure exactly what sort of hrs you are looking for but for eg:
- if she worked 5pm til 8am. 5-8pm $25/hr, then 8pm-6am at say $10-$15/hr and then 6-8am at $25/hr. You could add all that up and just quote a flat rate, or you could spell it out so she can see that she is being paid for every hr.

I actually dont know what a "standard" overnight hrly rate would be, I guessed at $10-15. We pay our daytime nanny $25/hr and our casual babysitter $20/hr for evening babysitting (when the kids are in bed for most of the time).

I guess also think about whether you are supply her food or not. And things like whether you would allow her access to your internet service etc. Also I assume you have a spare bed she can use, in her own room etc?

[papilio]

I'm not a nanny, but I do do passive/sleepover shifts in my job. These are paid at a flat rate of $86.xx. A few of our staff are ex-nannies. On balance, compared with similar workplaces, this is fairly well paid. Another work place I know of pays staff $4.xx per hour for a passive/sleepover shift. Some staff like doing passives, usually the young single ones. I loathe them and hadn't done one for about a year until recently.

In your situation, I'd be tempted to call it an even $100 for the night. I'm sure you'll be providing a nice environment, spare room, comfortable bed, heating/cooling etc...

[Sif]

I'm sorry, but you really need to pay her the same whether the kids are asleep or not. What happens if one of the kids is sick - how does she prove to you she sat up with the child? Or if there is an emergency, you would expect her to care for your children then, for more than $10-15 per hour.

Althernatively, you could have a flat rate 'per night' fee... So, $150 per night, perhaps (works out to less than $15 per hour on a 12 hour shift...

ETA:

I'm not a nanny, but I do do passive/sleepover shifts in my job. These are paid at a flat rate of $86.xx. A few of our staff are ex-nannies. On balance, compared with similar workplaces, this is fairly well paid. Another work place I know of pays staff $4.xx per hour for a passive/sleepover shift.

Read this after I posted - Wow, that's a lot less than my husband was offered for overnight work last year. He was to be paid $80 per night for a single adult who was mostly self-sufficient anyway, but occasionally needed assistance overnight.



This post has been edited by Sif: 21/01/2013, 12:51 PM

[papilio]

Sif's post reminded me that if the passive person is woken up, they get paid at their regular hourly rate for at least one hour. They do, however, have the active person to validate this though.

[elizabethany]

The minium wage is $15.96 per hour. I wouldn't be going below this, even if the kids are asleep, becaus ethe nanny is still responsible for your kids, and is still working, even if asleep.

[sqawk]

So you could offer say $100/night but then extra if there are extra unexpected duties eg sickness. The children are primary school aged, so they will be able to tell Mum is they were sick or not. And I wouldn't employ a nanny to look after my children while I was interstate if I didn't think I could trust them to truthfully report back whether they were sick, needed extra attention etc.

[sqawk]

You could argue that if the nanny is asleep she is not working, but is "on-call". There are a lot of workplaces that pay less that $16/hr to be on call (on site) and then extra if extra duties are required.

[IVL]

We have had our nanny do overnight duty a few times and we pay about $10 less per hour after 9pm, when the kids are asleep and then back up to normal rates after 6am. Remember all other costs still need to be paid like tax and super. We have never stipulated extra pay if children are sick etc. We are lucky that we have had a very good and long standing relationship with our nanny over the last 6 years. We have been good to her and she has been good to our family in turn.

[SeaPrincess]

Our old nanny charged $50/hour on weekends or overnight because she would have to get care for her own children. Needless to say, we never used her for that!