Nanny severance pay??

[magnoliaparadise]

Hi,

I have two part time nannies who combined make up 60 hours a week. One has worked for me for 1.5 years; the other 3 years. I have to cut their hours a lot (from 60 combined to 15 combined) because I'm not going to take extended unpaid maternity leave for almost a year and I need to cut costs.

I have given both one month notice. I would LOVE them to continue working for me for each 7.5 hours, but I assume that they'll both leave me for full time work because they need more hours.

*On top of the notice, should I pay severance pay? Did any of you? Or no?*

If I should, how much?

For those of you living in NYC, I'm in NYC, if it makes a difference.

Thanks,

Mama to two DDs, spitfire (just turned 4) and kicker (just turned 5 months)

[hillview]

I might give them an extra month to find something -- maybe the one who has been with you longer a second month. We had a nanny for 3 years and when we reduced her hours we gave her 3 months to find something (in the mean time we paid her and she came to our house to cook and help tidy up).
/hillary

[janeybwild]

We've never paid severance, but did give 2 months notice to find something. The flip to that though, is once she finds a position she will likely start immediately with them so expect no loyalty, it's purely business. Good luck

[daisysmom]

We have always given some severeance (we are on our 4th nanny now). My motivation has generally been that I didn't want the nannies to collect unemployment, and drive up my unemployment tax rate. We always let our nannies go b/c a change in hours (starting school or moving to a more full day) so we have needed nannies less and less (the first year I had a nanny for 49 hours, and then we had one for 40 hours, and now we have one for 30 hours). One we let go because she just wasn't working out. So we always hoped that paying them for 1-2 months would deter them for filing for unemployment because they woudl have more time to find something else. 2 of them ended up still filing for unemployment though.