Nannies - Guaranteed Hours?

[kenmoremmm]

we're in a pickle. we had lined up a nanny for the new school year (my wife works 2.5 days), but the nanny had to bail last minute. we've found many other nannies that seem well qualified, but they all want guaranteed hours (semi-loose definition).

because of school schedule and planned grandparent visits, there'll be multiple weeks during the school year that we do not need nanny service at all. the guaranteed hours (presumably 2.5 days/week) is a real sticking point.

we know our calendar for the next 9 months, and can provide to interested nannies for a guaranteed number of hours, but we do not need nanny care every week.

we feel a bit trapped. has anyone else encountered this?

i realize nannies, and all of us ('til FIRE), need to make a living. but the guaranteed hours thing is new to us and a bit odd.

[cats]

When we briefly did a nannyshare, yes, all nannies expected that they would be paid for hours when you were on vacation, etc. I frequently see people posting on our local parents board looking for people to take their place in nannyshares for 2-3 weeks while they are away.  Financially, it sucks, but daycares and preschools also generally operate this way, so I would say get used to it.

[MomOntheGo]

We do that, and I think that's one of the key factor of having a reliable childcare for long term.

So here is our deal:

1. Fixed # of hours/$ each week, plus major holidays off, whether we need her or not
2. we do not cover sick or personal days, in an other words, if she needs time off when we need her, she is not paid. We do communicate vacation time as early as we can so nanny can have the option to use those days without losing pay, if she needs to go somewhere
3. Our hourly rate is slightly lower than the market going rate, so that helps a bit in overall cost.

The key to make this work is to find the person who is in a relatively stable schedule or life/work situation that fit well with your needs. Most nannies also prefer a stable work situation instead of keep looking every couple of months so they are likely accept a guaranteed hour with slightly less hourly rate. You could be in much bigger a hassle if someone sign on and then leave for greener patches with short or no notice. Another way to help with this situation is guaranteed hours (sort of), but flex a bit to shift some(perhaps half) of your unused week hours to weekend/date night when you need her, with advance notice.

Your other alternative is to have 3-4 backup babysitters lined up just in case, but it's a lot of training and getting used to. In our case, the extra money on our arrangement definitely outweigh the risk and headache of unstable childcare situation, the stable childcare is a key enabler for us to work and get to FI ASAP.

Hope things work out great for your guys whichever option you end up with. Good luck!

[kenmoremmm]

We do that, and I think that's one of the key factor of having a reliable childcare for long term.

So here is our deal:

1. Fixed # of hours/$ each week, plus major holidays off, whether we need her or not
2. we do not cover sick or personal days, in an other words, if she needs time off when we need her, she is not paid. We do communicate vacation time as early as we can so nanny can have the option to use those days without losing pay, if she needs to go somewhere
3. Our hourly rate is slightly lower than the market going rate, so that helps a bit in overall cost.

The key to make this work is to find the person who is in a relatively stable schedule or life/work situation that fit well with your needs. Most nannies also prefer a stable work situation instead of keep looking every couple of months so they are likely accept a guaranteed hour with slightly less hourly rate. You could be in much bigger a hassle if someone sign on and then leave for greener patches with short or no notice. Another way to help with this situation is guaranteed hours (sort of), but flex a bit to shift some(perhaps half) of your unused week hours to weekend/date night when you need her, with advance notice.

Your other alternative is to have 3-4 backup babysitters lined up just in case, but it's a lot of training and getting used to. In our case, the extra money on our arrangement definitely outweigh the risk and headache of unstable childcare situation, the stable childcare is a key enabler for us to work and get to FI ASAP.

Hope things work out great for your guys whichever option you end up with. Good luck!

points 1-3 are exactly what we're thinking of as well. just need to get someone to bite with the approach.

[twe]

Would you want a job where your employer only paid you when they felt like it, on an irregular schedule, doesn't pay you if you get sick or need to go to the doctor, and aren't being able to have a salary expectation for the year? Because that's what you are saying you want to do for your nanny.

We have a nanny. We pay her when she isn't "needed" when we are on vacation because our jobs pay us while we are on vacation. We also pay her when she's sick (reasonable amount of days-have a discussion up front about what is ok and what isn't). 

We also don't believe it it fair to use the power dynamic that comes from having control over money/paycheck to dictate when she can take vacation. Holidays are generally going to overlap when everyone wants them, but we let her pick a week she wants off and we schedule a week of our vacation around that, so it's not just us telling her when we are off and expecting her family to plan around that 100% of the time. It's a you pick a week, we'll pick a week scenario with Christmas / New Years a given.

I know child care arrangements can be tough to arrange, but look at it from the nanny's perspective too and not just about saving some money. If the cash is an issue, daycare will be cheaper (unless you have 4+ kids in my area, with 3 being roughly a wash).

[Chrissy]

we feel a bit trapped. has anyone else encountered this?

i realize nannies, and all of us ('til FIRE), need to make a living. but the guaranteed hours thing is new to us and a bit odd.

Yes, and it fucking sucked.  My husband would LOSE HIS MIND the weeks he had to pay for no care. 

Just FYI, we changed to Montessori day care, and we LOVE it and so do our girls (3 yrs & 1 yr).

[frugal rph]

If you need reliable childcare, there is really no way around paying someone on a regular basis. I tried saving money by paying less or only paying when needed, but I found you don't get high quality care that way. I can't really blame nannies for that.

[englishteacheralex]

This is pretty much universal, no matter what you wind up doing for childcare. We did have a few babysitters who were ok with us paying them by the day, but those were all temporary situations to fill in the gaps at daycare.

We send our kids to a daycare that opens at 6:30 and goes until 6 pm. They follow the school calendar, so they take a week off at Christmas and spring break AND have a four week summer vacation. We pay a yearly tuition that is broken down by the month, and it's the same fee every month (even in the summer, when there is no care). We could pay extra for their summer session, but I'm a teacher so I just become a SAHM for the summer and that works for us.

All of my friends have little kids and two-income households. We all have to scramble and pay through the nose to cope with this situation. I have two kids and I think over the past five years we've spent around $90k on care for them.

[erutio]

Some people pay their nannies hourly, but paying a salary is not uncommon.  I'm not sure why you are so incredulous.

We paid our nannies a salary, with the expectation they are at our house at 7am and work until their work is done, like any salaried worker does.  It basically equates to until we get home from our own full time jobs.  Sometimes it was earlier around 4, other times 5:30 to 6pm. 

For major holidays and for our vacations, they are off yet still get paid the same. Like an earlier poster said, it's unfair for them to not be paid because you take vacation days and not get paid for holidays, like the rest of us do.

We also paid for half of their health insurances plans (we had them show us their quotes on the marketplace).   You of course are required to pay for unemployment insurance and employer's share of medicare and SS taxes.

If cash is short, consider a day care.  But trying to scrimp on paying nannies is cheap, not frugal.  This is their livelihood after all.

[LaineyAZ]

I'm in agreement with erutio and others:  a nanny is different from a date-night babysitter.  If you have a need for a part-time or full-time nanny then they should be paid the same as most workers are paid, i.e., include some paid time off.

Many years ago my infant son was watched by a neighborhood mom/friend.  Our household income was only $16,000/year and our family of 3 was scraping to get by.  However, if I had a paid holiday or vacation day and was home with our baby for that time, the mom/friend would still get the same amount.  I would never dream of deducting that time from our agreed-upon weekly fee.  I find that unbelievably miserly. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

When we needed guaranteed child care, we paid guaranteed hours. Now our kids are 12 & 13, and our schedule is all over the shop. They only need rides, and no child care. When I travel, we need much more help. When I have late calls, or the kids have an away volleyball game & one of us can't make it, the cross country practice conflicts with soccer, etc, etc. Because of our erratic schedule, we had an upfront conversation with our nanny. We know that our hours are unpredictable, so we do the following;

-Give as much lead time as possible on our schedule, knowing she fills in with other jobs
-Pass her name onto friends, and we have a casual sharing. Our nanny still gives me priority
-Minimum guarantee for time. I often only need 20-30 minutes of help, but we also pay for the minimum guarantee, to make it worth her time.
-We pay quite a bit over the standard hourly rate in our area
-When we have weeks where we don't need help (my parents are in town, etc), we arrange for date nights instead, so she can still get paid
-When I cancel at the last minute (my work ends early, whatever), we still pay

It's actually quite challenging when your kids are older, and you only need sporadic help. Very few people can afford to work that type of nanny job, or have a schedule that accommodates. We've found that being upfront about expectations, and following the guidelines above really help. Also note that our nanny works in a school, so this is a side hustle for her & not her full time job by any means.