How much should you pay your babysitter? Photo by Chad Guy.
For new parents, here is some helpful information on how much babysitters charge and how much you can expect to pay them.
In our area, we have found that if you want someone reliable, you have to pay for it. $8 – $13 an hour is not unheard of. If you want Nanny services part-time, expect to pay on the higher side, $12 – $15 an hour. A full-time Nanny doesn’t expect as much, but in the Chicagoland area I’d still expect to pay a full-time Nanny at least $10 an hour and that’s one with minimal experience. Nannies with years of experience may charge upwards of $20 an hour and expect benefits too.
A weekend, infrequent teenage babysitter would probably cost us at least $8 an hour, proving that it’s expensive to have a bad time, so why bother?
The 20 parents who responded to my call for information paid sitters from $2 to $10 an hour. The norm — based on this small sample — seemed to be $5 an hour.
From the Kansas City Star: “High school or college-age sitters who can drive and take kids to events typically are paid more, and older adults who baby-sit receive a slightly higher premium.
Susan Ramza, who has two children, ages 6 and 9, broke down her salary scale this way: “I pay a youngish neighborhood kid $5 to $6 a hour, a high schooler who doesn’t drive $7 an hour, a high school or college driver $8 an hour, and if we have an adult who has a real job by day, we pay $10 an hour.”
“We have two children and have a nanny from 9 to 3 during the week,” said Jayme Nolin. “When we have her baby-sit after her normal hours we pay $7 per hour while the children are awake and $5 per hour when sleeping.”
The norm for babysitting more than one child is to add a $1 an hour for each child, up to four kids. So, if your babysitter is chargin $8 an hour but you have two kids, expect to her him/her $9 an hour. If you’re hiring a teenager, don’t expect them to babysit more than 4 kids at a time. It’s probably best to hire two babysitters if you have a large family or you’re combining care with another family.
Here’s a sample of average hourly rates from four cities, based on a recent Money magazine survey:
Austin, Texas Minneapolis, Minn. New York City Santa Monica, Calif. Evening baby sitter age 18 or older $12 $10 $13 $12 Evening baby sitter age 14 to 18 $7 $6 $8 $7
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