How much will you pay your child's babysitter per week for the summer?

Question

I am 23 and I'll be watching 2 kids 40 hours a week in their home. I'm trying to come up with a fair amount to ask for per week, but I also don't want to sell myself short either. The children are ages 7 and 10. I have my own transportation, of course, and will most likely take them to the zoo and parks, etc. What do you think?

Answer 1

We have hired a nanny the past 3 summers.  For 2 kids I would pay $250 a week the first year ( each year we gave a raise).  The $250 is the wage.  We give extra each week for things like Gas and fun days.  If they go get Ice Cream or to the Zoo things like that.

We also paid for days that we needed off, but days our Nanny needed off were not paid. With the execption of the 4th of July that is a non paid holiday.

good luck!

Answer 2

I do think you should do a graduated charge/fee.

There are two ways to approach this.  You could charge by the hour with a cap for the day per child (for example $5/hr for the first child $3/hr for 2nd child $2/hr for 3rd on upto $xx/day per child no more than 10hrs/day).

Or you could just charge per day.  Like $30/day for first child and $20/day for second child.  Let's face it, they're not babies and the 10 y/o is pretty self sufficient.  And, for the gas, they should give you a stipend of say $5-10 per day or some set amount per week.  I'd have a clause that says your day is from 8-5pm anything in addtion to these hours will incur an hourly fee of $xx/hr minimum 1 hour.  This would be in the neighborhood of $275/week tax free probably,right?

Are you claiming this wage on your taxes?  If not, than don't be SOOOOO greedy.  Because if you were taxed you'd probably be making minimum wage and then seeing even less than that in your take home pay.  You might want to be graceful and just charge $20/kid plus $20/week gas - that's $220/week.  You are getting weekends and evenings off pretty much right?  Better than working nights, weekends and having irregular shifts in my opinion.  That in it of itself is worth something.

I agree w/ Maggie above.  Get expectation of the job from parents.  This is not a housekeeping position but I think you need to p/u after the kids and whatnot and ask about whether you can eat their food and such...The more they pay you the more they are going to expect from you in actions and professionalism.

Answer 3

For that kind of time and responsibility, asking for 8 dollars per hour seems fair.  That would be 320 dollars per week for watching the 2 kids.

Answer 4

hmn. a fair price might be like 30 - 40 per day. it all depends if te kids are very hard to babysit

Answer 5

$200 - that's $5 per hour.  I make $13 per hour and still have to pay bills in addition to child care.  This is what I can afford -- not the 'going rate'.

The kids are highly self-sufficient at this age, it's not as if you'd be changing diapers (in which case, the pay should be higher)

Answer 6

it you put it out at $5 an hour, then it comes to 200 a week.  however, you should also be making them pay for expenses.

Answer 7

First of all, you need to ask them what  they had in mind to pay you, then go from there. You have to take into account what they expect from you. Are you going to be doing light housework for them? How many meals will you be preparing?

Will you be there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? and so on...

All depending on what they want from you it could be anywhere from 7$ - 10$ an hour. It has to be worth your while.Remember you`ll be watching TWO children. lol

PS Don't forget, keep in mind the gas you will be using.

Answer 8

You need to find out the going rate for child care in your area. Depending on where you live will set the price. I am in a location where a nanny will charge anywhere between $10-15 dollars an hour(As a nanny, I get $12.50 an hour and that is not excessive). I have a relative in another state where the living expenses are less, people make less, etc and the going rate is around $5(asking $12.50 in that situation would be too much). Where I live $5 an hour would barely even put gas in my car for the month, much less pay other bills.

Your best bet is to check sites like craigslist to see what the average nanny is charging and go from there, you may even want to ask there and see what other nanny/sitters charge. Personally I wouldn't charge less than minimum wage, if some person flipping burgers can get $6.55(effective 7/24/08), than you should be getting at least that amount for taking care of someones most prized possession.

You know what you are worth, so charge accordingly. I will personally never understand parents that haggle over the price of childcare. Of all the things to try to get a deal on, the person watching your child is not it. Parents would not haggle or try and find the cheapest doctor if something was wrong with their kids, but they will try and find the cheapest sitter or not pay well.

Answer 9

I think a fair amount of money to ask for when babysitting 2 kids for, I'm guessing 8 hours a day, is about 15 to 20 dollars a day.

Answer 10

I think you should do $5.50 an hour so you have an extra $40.00 a week for snacks and what not. If you are going to be serving breakfast AND lunch, $6.00 an hour.

Take them to go free things as often as possible, such as park, walks around the block, free exhibits etc. If you plan quick trips to Dairy Queen and such that should only come to under $5.00 every once in a while you should go ahead and pay. However, if you plan any amusement park trip, zoo outing etc- talk to parents 2 weeks in advance, print cost per child info off the Internet and give them 2 weeks to pay for any special outings.

If you are charging $6.00 an hour I think this should include meals and snacks (such as baking cookies and cupcakes together sometimes), but not major meal out tings.