Everything You Need to Know about Nanny Salaries

If your family is looking to hire a nanny, you may have questions about what an appropriate nanny salary is. There are several factors that you should consider when determining the salary range that you will offer. Nanny salaries vary depending on the area of the country, whether the job is live-in or live-out, and what experience the nanny brings to the table. Learn more about how to determine the appropriate salary for your nanny. 

When a family is considering hiring a nanny, one of the main issues that must be taken into consideration is the salary that the nanny will receive. The amount of a nanny salary can depend on a range of factors, from the nanny’s experience to the location in which the family lives. In addition, a nanny salary will depend on whether she lives in or out of the family’s home. And a nanny salary must always comply with the state’s minimum hourly requirements and federal regulations. Nanny salaries, in general, will range from $275 to $800 weekly, with the range of $400 to $500 per week being most common, and $7 to $18 per hour.

Figuring Out the Right Range for a Nanny Salary

There are several ways that a family can determine the appropriate nanny salary. First, the family can ask other families in the area what they are paying their nannies. Next, the family can talk to a nanny agency to see what the going rate is for nannies. The family can also do some online research to find out what nanny salaries are in the state – there are many parenting message boards and online nanny agencies that have informative articles and discussions that can help narrow the range. One can safely assume that a nanny salary will be higher in an urban area that has a higher cost of living and lower in a suburban or rural area that has a lower cost of living.

In addition, look for studies that have been done to see what an appropriate range might be for a nanny salary. For example, a recent study done by the International Nanny Association (INA) reports that nanny salaries across the country can range from $300 to $1000 a week and from $12 to $15 per hour (1). The survey also states that nannies who provide extra services get paid more – between $25 and $100 per night for overnight care (with some nannies receiving nothing extra for overnight care) and between $50 and $200 per day for travel (2).

Live-In vs. Live-Out Nannies

If one is hiring a live-in nanny, one should also take into consideration that the nanny will be getting room and board as well as her pay, and should adjust the salary accordingly. A higher nanny salary might also be considered if the nanny is offering services other than childcare, such as housekeeping or cleaning. For a live-out nanny, her salary will be higher if she has a car that she can use to pick up the children and take them to school or to activities. She also may be asked to do such tasks as cook a meal or two for the children, and her salary should also be adjusted for this.

Experience

The range for a nanny salary will also depend on a nanny’s level of experience. A person who has worked as a nanny for several families in the past will command a higher nanny salary than a person who is seeking her first nanny position. Nannies with previous experience will also, of course, want to make as much as or more than they had made with their other families.

Extras

Another factor that could raise a nanny salary is anything extra that she brings to the table. Does she speak English fluently? Does she know CPR and first aid? Is she a specialist in something that she could tutor children in (math, science, a foreign language)? All of these things can contribute to a higher salary – and are likely worth paying the extra fee.

What If You Can’t Afford the Nanny You Like Best?

So what does a family do if they find a nanny they love and want to hire but they find her salary range to be higher than they expected? In a case like this, the family could try to bargain with the nanny, offering her extra services in trade for a slightly lowered hourly or weekly rate. For example, a dentist could provide free dental work. In addition, some families share their nannies, splitting the cost of the nanny salary over several children. The family could also offer extra perks to the nanny, such as extra time off, use of the family car, or use of a second home. In this way, the nanny feels that she is still valued but may be willing to negotiate to a lower weekly or hourly rate.

Conclusion

It is very important to investigate nanny salaries before you begin interviewing candidates so that you know ahead of time what you can afford. Knowing about a nanny salary first also gives you the ability to bargain with your ideal candidate if you cannot afford the top of the range by offering additional perks or trades. If you base your salary offers on where you live, the nanny’s experience, and additional benefits the nanny can offer your family, you’re sure to find the perfect candidate.

Sources

1. http://www.nanny.org/2006salarysurvey.htm

2. Ibid

About the Author

Steve Lampert is the president of eNannySource, an online nanny agency that brings together families and nannies. Lampert previously ran a successful, award-winning nanny agency in a major city for over 10 years, during which time he worked with thousands of families and nanny candidates. Through this experience, he became familiar with the important steps in a nanny search, which he continues to apply to his business today. To learn more, please visit www.enannysource.com.

By Steven Lampert Published: 2/22/2008   How Much Should a Nanny Cost? | momaroo For babysitting jobs for just two children that were both about 5 years old, I got 10 dollars an hour. And I wasn’t expected to cook or bathe them or anything, usually just play with them.  Read more… Best Nanny Newsletter: Privacy and Nanny Placement Agencies She just applied with us too.” Great. I didn’t think anything of it. But, after I asked me friend how she liked working with the agency my nanny friend had a fit.  Read more…

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Best Paid Overseas Teaching Jobs

To ensure you land the best paid overseas teaching job you need to consider more than just the salary being offered. Benefits and income tax can either significantly add to or subtract from your savings potential.

Here’s how… When looking for the best paid overseas teaching job it is easy to be blinded by the salary being offered but this may prevent you from making the best choice if saving money is your primary concern. Here are two tips to help you find the highest paying teaching job abroad – net.

Teaching jobs abroad come in many shapes and sizes. You can teach English in private language schools, teach at universities set up for local students from the host countries and, you can teach at international schools which are set up for expatriate children. The most lucrative position is usually teaching at an international school for expatriate children. There are over 4000 international schools worldwide so there is plenty from which to choose.

Salary and Benefits

When considering a teaching position abroad it is important that you consider the overall package rather than simply the salary offered. This is what makes an international school teaching job the best paid teaching position abroad.

Some benefits offered by many international schools that can add to the overall package are:

* flights paid from your home to the school’s location at the beginning and end of your contract. Depending on how far your home is from the school, this benefit alone can save you several thousand dollars.

* housing allowance. Often international schools will pay you a monthly housing allowance, or even provide accommodation for you in an apartment or a housing complex. When you are offered a housing allowance you can usually find yourself adequate housing for the amount you are paid, and sometimes you can even end up with a surplus.

* end-of-contract bonus. International schools want you to remain for the full length of your contract and are willing to give you a financial incentive to do so. You may be able to negotiate an end-of-contract bonus of 10-15%.

Income Tax

Another consideration when considering teaching positions abroad and attempting to evaluate which one will be the most profitable is how much tax you will have to pay. Countries have the differing tax rules, for example in Taiwan you may only pay 10% tax, but in Poland you will have to pay closer to 20%. Therefore it is important to find out how much tax you will have to pay and establish how this will affect your overall take home salary.

Also, some benefits are taxable as well, so it is wise to check whether the dollar amounts you are quoted are gross (before tax) or net (after tax).

Finally on the subject of income tax, you should check with the tax department in your home country to establish what your tax commitment to them will be. Simply not living in your home country does not mean your government will not require you to pay tax there, for example, the government in Holland expects citizens who teach abroad to pay ‘wealth tax’ on any assets they leave behind.

This information is difficult to come by for most international schools in the initial stages of the recruitment process. Some international teacher job fair organisers require member schools to complete some of this information in their vacancy listings, but others do not. In order to ensure you have the required information to make the best decision possible before you sign a contract for a teaching job overseas, make up a set of interview questions that will cover this ground.

For more detailed information on securing the best paid overseas teaching jobs get Kelly’s Complete Guide to Securing a Job at an International School – now completely revised for 2008!

"Escape the Rat Race – Teach Overseas" available FREE!

By Kelly Blackwell Published: 1/22/2008   ESL Jobs, TEFL Jobs, TESOL Jobs – Total 12 K12 teaching JOBS in … ESL employment – Free esl job posting and employment opportunities. Search for the latest teaching jobs and career opportunities abroad in the field of ESL / EFL.   Read more.

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When a spouse is assigned an overseas assignment, the partner is faced with many obstacles that are often ignored. Unfortunately at this time not too many companies offer their support to the spouse.

According to research done by Val Boyko into ‘global solutions for international assignments’ at the Families in Global Transition conference in 2004, she found that the partner’s biggest challenges are that they feel:

* Unrecognized.
* Unsupported.
* Let down because of inaccurate or irrelevant information.
* Isolated.

Maybe you or a friend is experiencing life as an expat partner where you thought you would be able to work, but have found out that it was is a near impossibility; or that you have assumed that internet access would be easily available to maintain contact with friends and family only to discover that it takes months to get connected; or you are a newcomer without an expat community around you AND you can’t speak the language.

This happens all the time to expat spouses.

So what is the solution?
Tips for the expat spouse

1. Team Work:

Try and get everyone to work together to understand and accept your needs as a spouse. Speak to whoever is in charge of the expat assignment, build up a relationship with him or her before you move and become as informed as you can. Encourage them to give you honest and accurate expectations so that you can make the best choices for yourself and for your family.

2. Your role:

Find out about the issues that generally face expat spouses. Make yourself aware of the challenges you will meet. Take up the responsibility and to make it your business to know. Do not rely on others to provide you give you what you may need.

3. Support:

Make contact with existing expats in the country you are about to move to through groups, message boards, and online forums. Set up a relationship and support system for yourself even before you land at the airport. Begin to explore possibilities before you head out on your new adventure.

4. Education:

Educate yourself – there really is so much information on the web. Don’t assume that the experience will be similar to your impressions. It often is not! So be curious and pro-active. Do not be afraid to ask for help. Let others know what you need. People want to help and it could be your very lifesaver in a time of need.

And finally…you may want consider hiring your own coach to give a speedy start to your overseas success!

Quote of the week

"Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more successful." Mark Victor Hansen.
Powerful question of the week

"What would you like to happen now, this week, next year.?"

Write it down, be specific and make an action plan to make it happen.

Expat lifecoach
As an Expat Life Coach, my purpose is to support expatriate assignees, their spouses and families in developing tools that will help make the expat experience work for them. If you are skeptical or curious about how the coaching process works, feel free to take up my offer of a COMPLIMENTARY coaching session. After the session, you can take whatever tools you developed to support yourself along your expat journey. Please email me to set up your FREE session.

By: Kimbles

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Kimbles is the resident writer at Xpatpals.com. An expatriate advice resource for expats living all over the world.

Five good reasons to move to France — French Life-expat France

They will soon get bored of filming expat-refugees from France staggering in threadbare clothes from the cross-channel ferries in a state of semi-starvation, and will be looking for new ideas. Read more…

The biggest secret I have found to moving is to stay calm, my stomach always used to churn every time we would say: ‘Let’s look at moving to London, Perth, Colorado….’ I would have this rush in the pit of my stomach and wonder how we were going to cope with the challenge.

Now, I take it one step at a time. What do we do first, what do we need to know before we make the decision, how does the family feel about a new culture, different schools, a new home and most importantly new friends.

So, where do we start? Usually with the most important questions, why are we moving and do we really want to change from our comfort zone, once you have been able to answer these questions and you have more positives about leaving than staying (and the answer to this could be as simple as being offered a job in a new country), then you need to start researching the place you are moving to.

Questions start surfacing such as will we fit in and be happy in a new country, what is the education like, medical facilities, culture, politics, housing, work conditions, transport and entertainment? How many expats like ourselves will be living there, will our life be normal or will we have to adjust too extremely, and are we happy to do this?

This is where I start searching the internet. Wikipedia is a great site to get an overall overview on any country in the world and it will cover all the basic factual information for you, including geographical location, population, historical background, religion, culture, education, economic situation and political info.

On getting a basic understanding of a country, I would then start looking at government sites and gathering information about the ease of moving to this country. What is required from a governmental legal perspective, including visa’s, whether a spouse can work on entry, how long a spouse needs to wait before starting to work, what legal rights do you have in the country, can you take your pets with and how does this work, what furniture can you take with (some countries do not allow wooden furniture into a country if it has not been treated) these government sites will cover any and all questions of this nature for you.

Finally and probably more importantly are the forums and blogs you can find, where expats can inform you of what to expect and you can ask any question and expect an honest answer. These sites can come across with mixed emotions from people who are enjoying the move and loving the country to those who hate every minute of their stay. The relevant question to ask here is why….why are they enjoying or hating it and then make your own decision?

The above would be the questions that the spouse that stays at home and cares for the children, however the bread winner wants a different question answered. They want to know what they should be earning in the new country and this is where an international cost of living salary calculator like xpatulator can be relevant to you.
Xpatulator gives you the answers you are looking for dependant on the questions you answer in the Cost of Living Calculator. It will determine what your salary in the new country should be to maintain your standard of living.

Why, you may ask? Because $100 000 may sound like a fabulous salary, however if your cost of living in the country you are moving to is extremely high, it may not cover your costs on a monthly basis. With the calculator, you can determine whether or not you will be able to afford to live in the new country. The calculator will work out the salary you should be earning if you have to cover all costs, or if your company will cover some of those costs for you. They also cover the Negative Cost of Living and Negative Hardship. What are these you ask with horror? Negative Cost of Living refers to a location that has a lower cost of living than the country you are living in and selecting to use this will result in a proportional decrease in the salary required e.g. if you had to move from London to Zimbabwe you will find the cost of living will be lower (negative difference). Negative Hardship refers to less hardship in the new location e.g. if you had to move from Zimbabwe to London you will find that your quality of living will be easier (negative difference).

So before you disregard the importance of what you need to earn when moving to a new country, take all aspects into account. At the end of the day what you will earn, will determine the school, home, medical facilities and entertainment you will be able to afford. So the secret to moving from one country to another, may be your emotional stability and happiness in the new location, however this is often determined by how much money is sitting in your bank account.

By: Steven Coleman

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Steven Coleman runs the most comprehensive international relocation calculator available, an internet service that is used primarily to calculate expatriate salary levels for international assignments, which can be found at www.xpatulator.com

Real Estate Blog – Top 5 Tips for International Relocation

Moving Back to the United States After a Few Years Abroad or Relocating to a Foreign Country? There are plenty of guides that focus on less complicated local moves. Here are a couple good ones:…   Read more…