S/O what do you pay your HS sitter?

[BabbyO]

I'm talking about your average HS student. You pick him/her up and drop them off.

We live in a moderate COL area. My kiddos are 3.5 and 18 mo. Usually what happens is DH picks up sitter and we have kids dinner started when he shows up with sitter. Depending on the schedule she may finish up dinner with them on her own...or we may still be there to clean them up.

She doesn't do dishes (at our direction). She plays with them for 1-1.5 hr, helps brush teeth and gets them into bed. Then she hangs out at the house until we get home. I have a hard time justifying $10-15/hr when she typically is only watching them for 2 hr max...often more like 1-1.5 hr. I've asked....but she always says whatever I think is fair. (Gah...$3/hr for 3 kids was great $$ when I babysat! I don't know what is fair these days). Don't get me wrong....she is great with the kids....but frankly we'll never get date nights if the cost of child care increases significantly!

I usually do about $7-8/hr. Am I way off base?

[Green_Tea]

I pay our HS babysitter between $10-12/hour for the type of work you are describing. Around here that's the going rate.

I may be in the minority, but I would not pay a HS babysitter less than I'd pay a college or adult sitter for the same work. If the job involved driving the kids around, I'd pay more. ETA - If they are responsible for their own transportation, I might pay more, too. We've had HS babysitters that drive.

[AnnieW625]

:yeahthat: I got paid slightly higher in college than I did in high school, but that was only because minimum wage went from $4.25 an hour to $4.75 in 1996, then to $5 in 97, and it was almost $6 when I stopped sitting in 2000. I think though I used to charge $3.75 in high school for my neighbors only, but everyone else got charged at least minimum wage.

I would offer to pay minimum wage for one kid, and then an additional $1.50 to $2 per hour for a second kid, or each additional kid. That was always my base rate, but sometimes the people I worked for paid a little bit more, but most of the time for two kids I was happy getting $6.75 an hour.

So in our case we pay $10 an hour, $8 an hour is CA minimum wage, so I am paying $2 more for the second child.

[lcarlson90]

The only HS aged person that watches our kids is my niece and we pay her $10 per hour for 2 kids.

[Nechums]

Um, we pay $10-12/hr when the kids are sleeping! That's right, they get paid ~$30 for watching TV and doing homework! That's the going rate here.

[crl]

In San Francisico we were paying high schoolers $10 an hour for two kids. We moved to the suburbs and the two sitters I have found so far are both 14 year olds and they charge $8 per hour.

I do pay college students and older sitters more. I expect more of them and hire them when I need someone who can put my two year old down for nap or to bed or when I am going to be gone for longer stretches. I expect older sitters to be able to make simple dinner (Mac n cheese from a box or heat up soup or the like) where for teenagers I always just order food or have sandwiches already made. I also expect college and older to take my dog out to go potty.

Catherine

[brittone2]

Um, we pay $10-12/hr when the kids are sleeping! That's right, they get paid ~$30 for watching TV and doing homework! That's the going rate here.
I was at crazy 8 a few nights ago and two late HS/early college aged young women were working and talking about sitting. One was saying how she loves her baby sitting gig; she makes $50 for 2-3 hours of sitting and the kids are asleep the whole time. I thought...yeah, I won't ask them if they are interested in sitting for us (12-15/hr is the going rate in my area for 3 kids according to care.com. We pay $15, but both sitters have cpr, first aid, are college educated, work in education, etc. and I am willing to pay on the higher end of the range for their professionalism).

[Corie]

I pay our HS babysitter $10 an hour for my 2 kids.

[scrooks]

I agree with the $10/ hour that most people are stating. That's about what I would pay for a hs sitter for my 2.

[daniele_ut]

I pay our HS age sitters $5 an hour and that is the going rate here. Based on what everyone else on the BBB is paying I will never ever leave my state!

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

We had our first high school sitter on Sunday and we paid her $12 an hour ($60 for 5 hours). I think her rate was $10, but we always round up.

I prefer our college + age sitters. The going rate for them is $15/hour.

[maestramommy]

For HS that we pick up or drop off we would pay $7.50/hr. They used to arrive after we put the kids to bed, now they put the kids to bed (no baths). Once they start driving themselves we've gone to $10/hr.

[MelissaTC]

$8/hr. I round up and tend to be more generous with the 18 yr old that drives herself. I pay my college age sitters $10/hr.

[BabbyO]

For HS that we pick up or drop off we would pay $7.50/hr. They used to arrive after we put the kids to bed, now they put the kids to bed (no baths). Once they start driving themselves we've gone to $10/hr.


$8/hr. I round up and tend to be more generous with the 18 yr old that drives herself. I pay my college age sitters $10/hr.

This is making me feel much better. Like I said we avg $7-8/hr and do the drop-off pick up. Well, except for the other night when the whole family wanted to see our boys so they did drop off and hung out for 30-45 min so they could visit. Our HS sitters are the oldest kids of our former daytime sitter so sometimes if they are out and about they will offer to drop off one of the girls just so they can see our boys. No baths and bedtime is generally within 1-1.5 hr from when we leave.

[belovedgandp]

I average out to about $8/hr. As much as $9 and as low as $7, just depends. We have a family across the street that has kids that are now 20, 17 and 14. All three of them have babysat for us through the years. I flex based on how many kids are here - it is some combination of 1 to 3 kids. I always round up to the closest hour.

Now we use them frequently, but rarely for big blocks of time for dates. More frequently for week nights when DH is OOT or busy and I'm trying to shuffle kids lots of different places or am out with the oldest past the early bedtime for the younger one. So I do use a sitter 4-8 times per month but typically only for 45-90 minutes at a time. Which is why it is so nice to know this family well and have someone be able to run over.