Babysitting wages

[extendedforecast]

My 17 year old has a promising job opportunity this summer babysitting older children in the mornings. This job would require her to arrive before they wake up, warm up a prepared meal, drive the children to a swim class for two hours, return home and make lunch. She would be there for about 4-5 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. I want her to have a "number" in mind when she goes to meet the parents and children where they will formally offer her the job. What is reasonable to expect per hour/day/week. She would be driving her own car. She has babysat in the past, making $8-10 per hour, depending on the family.

[vonfirmath]

My 17 year old has a promising job opportunity this summer babysitting older children in the mornings. This job would require her to arrive before they wake up, warm up a prepared meal, drive the children to a swim class for two hours, return home and make lunch. She would be there for about 4-5 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. I want her to have a "number" in mind when she goes to meet the parents and children where they will formally offer her the job. What is reasonable to expect per hour/day/week. She would be driving her own car. She has babysat in the past, making $8-10 per hour, depending on the family.

 

Around here, all day in someone else's home childcare is $125-$150/wk/kid (sometimes discounts for subsequent kids -- Maybe down to $80/wk for older? Depends on the house)  but this involves: Your kid going to their house. And driving them around. OTOH, for the two hours they are at swim class, it will probably be an easier situation.  4 days a week would be charged as all week. This is only half a day.  But the other things that increase the price.  Maybe see what they think of $150/wk for the first. Additional $100/wk each additional kid? -- Need beginning time and end times nailed down (to avoid being taken advantage of)  And the schedule. If they want a per day price, I'd charge it at regular babysitting rates plus a premium for the car ride.

 

What will happen if one kid is sick? (This sounds like multiple kids) Will the parents stay home with the kid or will she need to take a sick kid to swim class for the others?

 

Who is providing car seats for children that need them?

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by vonfirmath

[Bluegoat]

Well, if this is daily it wouldn't be like babysitting, I think it would be on the daily childcare level.

 

I'd look at what is charged for a part-time nanny in your area, or look at what in-home childcare typically costs.

[EKS]

She would be driving her own car. 

 

You may want to check with your insurance on this--some policies have restrictions about driving the car for business purposes.

[Scarlett]

My 17 year old has a promising job opportunity this summer babysitting older children in the mornings. This job would require her to arrive before they wake up, warm up a prepared meal, drive the children to a swim class for two hours, return home and make lunch. She would be there for about 4-5 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. I want her to have a "number" in mind when she goes to meet the parents and children where they will formally offer her the job. What is reasonable to expect per hour/day/week. She would be driving her own car. She has babysat in the past, making $8-10 per hour, depending on the family.

If she normally gets $8 per hour I think that is a good number to start with. $8 X 5 hours is $40 per day which seems reasonable to me based upon the fact that they are older children and that at least two hours of that the children will be in the care of the swim coach. But check around in your area.

[kewb]

She is responsible for driving the children to and from swim practice.  I would pay in the $12-$15 range.  In  my area, I believe the going rate is now $18-$20 for a college student who drives your kids places.

[AmandaVT]

I would think somewhere around $300/week or $75/day. 

 

For a comparison, I had a babysitting job for years that entailed me going to the family's home before school ended and picking up car seats and gym bags for 2 kids. Then I met the school bus and drove the girls to gymnastics practice. They had about an hour to spend in the gym before practice and spent the time having a snack and doing homework - I kept half an eye on them during this time, but I was teaching a different class during this hour. Picking them up and driving them to practice took about an hour a day 3 days a week for me and mom paid me $45/week. 

[Scarlett]

I don't know how anyone can afford to work at those prices. I am not saying they aren't reasonable price...l am just gobsmacked that some people can afford it.

[umsami]

I got paid $1/hr for childcare of two kids, 8-10 hours per day, 5-6 days/week, during the summer.  Ridiculous, no?  Still, I made a lot of money simply because the hours were so high.

 

Has she worked for them before?  If so, at what rate?  I would use her regular rate as a starting point.  So, let's assume 20 hours/week * $10/hour=$200.  Maybe add in $50 for a tank of gas for all of the driving as well.  

 

I think an hourly rate is easier than a weekly rate, because then she won't be taken advantage of by the parents coming home later and later and still expecting her to care for the kids.

 

 

[mamakelly]

If she's driving kids places, I'd tell my kids to ask for $12 (they usually charge $10), an hour to offset gas costs.

[Mom22ns]

I think this varies a lot with the area you are in. In my low-COL area, I would say base at $8/hr for 1-2 kids and add about $1/hr for every two kids added. Dd had a regular part-time nanny thing where she watched 7-8 kids (the baby usually went with her mom) and did it for $10/hr since it was a scheduled and reliable income. It was great! She would be happy to nanny full time for that in the summer if she could find it. 

 

In higher COL areas, those numbers probably sound like a travesty, but here part-time or summer jobs for teens/college students pay minimum wage, $7.70/hr. $10/hr feels like a lot and most parents just don't make enough to pay a much more.

[Arcadia]

SKL hired a nanny/babysitter to drive her kids to after school activities for years. Maybe she can give you a good estimate of babysitting with chauffeur duty vs babysitting.

 

I don't know how anyone can afford to work at those prices. I am not saying they aren't reasonable price...l am just gobsmacked that some people can afford it.

We were out shopping on weekends and there were many open positions with hourly rates posted. BK pays $14/hr lowest wage position for anyone 14 years old and above. Panda Express pays $13-22/hr depending on the job, $13 is for the food servers. In-N-Out pays higher than $15 but I forgot the exact wage. A Japanese supermarket we went to pays above minimum wage for full time and part time stockers, kitchen help and fish dept help, the highest wage posted was $25/hr.

 

People are mentioning hourly babysitting rates which are higher than regular childcare rates. My friends who work pay monthly childcare rates which are much lower. For example a friend who is a nurse at Kaiser paid $1,500/month for an elderly nanny to babysit her toddler from 8am-5:30pm as her husband usually reach home latest by 5pm. The nanny who is around my mom's age treat her toddler like her own grandchild.

 

My friend's child charge $9/hr as a favor, typical ad-hoc babysitting rates in my area are $15/hr. Many use parents night out for date nights and places like YMCA, Little Gym charge $30 for an evening.

 

My city's minimum wage is $11/hr but will increase to $15/hr which is the state's minimum wage from 2022.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Arcadia

[zoobie]

If your minor child is driving the kids in your vehicle, liability for the kids is on you and your insurance.

 

Around here, it would be $12-15/hr at least for someone who can drive. Will she have to install car seats/boosters in your car? The people we know who have a nanny/sitter drive their kids all have a vehicle for the nanny to use because of the insurance and extra costs. Neighborhood people who just need someone to walk their kids to the pool for swim team practice would pay around $10/hr.

[AimeeM]

We pay almost $20/hr for occasional babysitting of our two boys.

This is more of a regular "nannying" situation, since it is in the employer's home, not the sitter's, so the rates would be a bit different, I suppose. 

I would say $50/day is reasonable in this situation. To compare, we pay about $25-30/day for boarding (at our vet's office) our German Shepherd -- and he's just let out to play on a run a couple times a day and fed, so I would say that AT LEAST $50/day is reasonable for, you know, human children who will require constant care and transportation  :coolgleamA:

Edited April 27, 2017 by AimeeM

[StephanieZ]

8-10/hr seems good to me, assuming that's at or above your area's minimum wage. I'd add $10/day (so 2/hr?) to cover her gas/wear and tear on her car -- assuming it's less than 30 min total driving time -- if she is driving the children places. (If she's driving more than a half hour total, I'd up that rate by about 20/hr to compensate for the added miles/gas/stress).

 

If you go with a daily wage, be sure it's clear that the wage is for up to X number of hours.

 

So, for instance, $50/day for up to 5 hours and up to 20 miles / 30 min driving, and $10/hr for any additional time. And clarify that wages are paid at least weekly on a specific day.

 

This way, if the parents start adding hours onto the day ("Can you stay until 3 on Friday . . . I have a DR appointment . . . etc) , there's a mechanism in place to easily charge for added hours.

 

If you live in a super high COL area, I could see charging more, but, honestly, 10/hr is pretty great for a babysitting gig, IMHO. 

Edited April 27, 2017 by StephanieZ

[hjffkj]

$10/hr plus gas

[extendedforecast]

We live in a Houston, Texas suburb where the average home price per sqft is $110, to give you an idea of the cost of living. This specific neighborhood has houses priced from the $400's to the $600's. She would be driving 6.4 miles - 17 minutes according to google maps. Thanks for telling me about insurance. I will check my policy to make sure she can use her car and be covered if anything happens. The kids are 9 and 11 I think, so probably only booster seats are needed.

Edited April 28, 2017 by extendedforecast