Babysitting rate for family?

[wageslave23]

What's a fair hourly rate for my wife to watch my brother's baby? We have a one year old. My wife works one day a week currently but could work more. Both families make plenty of money. My wife would like watching our nephew but it would also be a hassle watching an 18 month old and a 6 month old.

[Adventine]

What's the market rate for babysitters in your area? If your relationship with your brother is good enough, you could offer something like a 50% discount on the market rate. That would make it a good deal for them, create goodwill that you and your wife can capitalize on in the future, and still compensate your wife for her time.

[wageslave23]

I have no idea what the rate is for a home daycare for a baby. But a commercial daycare is about $7.50 hr. But wouldn't be worth it to us at that rate. $15 hr would be worth it to us. And putting myself in their shoes, I'd choose $15 hr with family over $7.50 at a daycare facility.  But also don't want to take advantage of them. I think $12 hr would be the absolute lowest we would want to go. Just seeing if anyone has any data points for someone watching a baby.

[Adventine]

Hmmm, try asking on Nextdoor about the going rates? That way you'd be sure to get local info.

[Villanelle]

I have no idea what the rate is for a home daycare for a baby. But a commercial daycare is about $7.50 hr. But wouldn't be worth it to us at that rate. $15 hr would be worth it to us. And putting myself in their shoes, I'd choose $15 hr with family over $7.50 at a daycare facility.  But also don't want to take advantage of them. I think $12 hr would be the absolute lowest we would want to go. Just seeing if anyone has any data points for someone watching a baby.

Double the going rate seems like way too much.  But I'm also not sure what you mean by "commercial daycare" since what that brings to mind for me is very different than private, individual babysitting.  If $12 is the lowest your wife would want to do for doing this, I'd go with that.  I think it also matters how much time this will be, if there will be meals prepared and included, etc.  Is this a few hours of babysitting, or is it fulltime (or at least more than a few hours) of daycare?  That latter includes meals, driving around, clothing chances, activities, etc.