if you pay for an after school nanny/sitter, how much do you pay?

[AnnieW625]

I feel silly asking this as I used to do this in college, but I live in a much more higher COL area, and minimum wage is now $8 an hour. Sitter City nannies post wanting $12 to $15 an hour, and I mean I pay my DCP's daughter $10 an hour now to watch my two kids and she is a freshman in high school who just turned 15 so maybe $15 an hour isn't out of the ball park, even though that was my hourly salary during my second year at my first full time job out of college. It was $5.25 when I did it, but I usually got paid between $8 and $10 an hour to watch two kids. The only time I got paid more than $10 an hour was to watch 5 kids, 1 of who was about a year old, and I think I got $12 hr. then. I had my own transportation, and paid for it on my own, but now gas is $2.50 to $3 more a gallon than it was then (mid to late 90s) so I would probably want to figure in gas as well. Gas here is about $4.25 a gallon here now.

My DD1 goes to after care, but it would be nice to have the option if I found a good activity for her where she needs to be somewhere earlier than 5:30 pm. It would probably only be a once weekly thing, but it would kind of be a nice option if I needed it.

Oh, and if I used a college student I wouldn't require that they be an early education major so I don't know if that would make a difference at the pay rate either. That was my biggest pet peeve when I was a nanny sitter is that people wouldn't even consider me because that wasn't my major although I had 5+ yrs. of sitting experience by the time I was 20 and had great references.

[brittone2]

We don't have an after school sitter, but we pay $15/hr for date night, etc. sitters in our area. We are in a moderate to higher COL area, but not as high as where you are. That is for 3 kids. Care.com lets you search average pay by zip code and # of kids. In my area, for 3 kids the going rate is 12-15/hr. Both sitters we are currently using are ed majors (one graduated and is working as a kindy instructional assistant, one is an assistant preschool teacher and currently pursuing her bachelor's degree). That wasn't a deciding factor for me either, but that's just the way it worked out.

[PunkyBoo]

We paid our date-night sitter $12 per hour but would round up the total to avoid having to have change (so 3 hours would actually be $40, but 5 hours would be the even $60.) The nanny we have now we pay more like a salary so neither she nor I have to worry about changes in the number of hours week to week, but if we pay her "overtime" (over an agreed upon Max number of hours in a week) then we pay $12 per hour (on top of her salary).

[Green_Tea]

I pay our HS babysitter between $10-12/hour for date nights, but think she's reasonable. I'd expect to pay a nanny between $12-15/hour. I think that part of what you're paying for is not only the childcare but also the the expectation that they will be available for you at said day and time. I know my HS babysitter might say no when I call (in fact, she did today!).

[niccig]

I've had 2 sitters pick DS up from school and take to activities or home. I pay $12 an hour for 1 child, add in extra for gas and round up. So from 5.45 until 7.30 when DH gets home, it's 2 hours (well just under, but we say 2 hours), so $24, gas I give $5 as it's just from school to home, I'd do more if running DS around, so $29 = round up to $30.

I do the gas and have been thanked as previous families did not pay gas. When a gallon is over $4 here, it really adds up to drive someone else's child and not get money for gas.

I'm also on the generous side as I need the sitter to go to classes, so I'll pad a little (rounding up) to not nickel and dime, so they will say yes when I ask them to sit for us. Current sitter had to change her work hours for 1 day, so want it to be worth her time to change her schedule for me.

Oh both my sitters either were in college or finished college, so older than HS. I've had a teacher do it a couple times when they sitter couldn't, and I paid her $15 an hour, teachers always get paid more for babysitting it seems.

[hillview]

we pay a montessori trained teacher 20 an hour. I have also paid another lovely person 15 an hour.

[egoldber]

When we were considering this option a couple years ago, the going rate was $15 an hour.