Family Offers Nanny Of 2 Years $5 Less Than Her Current Rate After She Asks For A Raise
So much for loyalty.
Pixel-Shot | Shutterstock Childcare is expensive. Most families don't have the luxury of in-home care that a nanny can provide, yet they still pay out the nose for daycare. Unfortunately, not all families with a nanny actually pay their childcare provider fairly, either. A nanny experienced this firsthand after circumstances at her job changed, the family size increased, and her raise request was met with an offer that was less than her current pay.
Posting her dilemma to Reddit, the nanny explained that after two years of being overworked and underpaid, she attempted to negotiate a raise with the parents. Instead of realizing how lucky they were to have her, they tried to essentially force her to accept a lower rate by threatening that they had another provider lined up to take on her role for less.
A nanny was offered $5 less than her current rate after asking for a raise.
Explaining her situation, the nanny wrote, "I’ve been nannying for a family for over 2 years at $25/hr for their toddler. A couple months ago they had a new baby, and over the past month they slowly started slipping the baby into my care without any conversation about pay."
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On top of caring for their toddler and now their newborn, her job requires her to deep clean their house, scrub the bathrooms from top to bottom, fold and put everyone's laundry away, and organize all of the cabinets and drawers. It's gotten to the point where her responsibilities fall more under the category of being a housekeeper than actually being a nanny.
Basically, this family is taking advantage of her in the worst way possible. Consider this: Angi estimates that the average cost of an independent house cleaning service can range from $25 to $80 per hour, or an average of $118 to $237 per visit. If she were only doing the deep cleaning for this household, her pay would be on the lower end.
The nanny brought up the topic of a raise because she is now watching two children instead of just one.
After quietly adding more duties to her job description, including taking on a bigger role in the care of the new baby, she finally decided to broach the topic of getting a raise with them. She admitted that she was more than happy to take care of both kids, but that her rate would be $30/hr instead of $25.
The mom responded that she would keep that in mind moving forward, so she assumed that it meant she would be getting paid her actual rate. Unfortunately, what that statement actually meant was, "How can we spin this situation to our advantage?"
"Then last week, she canceled on me saying they were 'sick' — but now I don’t even believe that was true. I think it was just a stall while they shopped around for someone else," she continued. "Eventually she came back and said $30/hr 'just isn’t something they can swing financially' because of buying a house."
According to Care.com, the nanny's raise request was on par with her responsibilities. The outlet noted that a nanny's rate should increase by at least $1 to $2 an hour for an additional child. However, if that child requires additional certifications, such as infant care or infant first aid, the increase can be more substantial, depending on your location and the level of care required. They also pointed out that, "Some families ask their nanny to pitch in with additional household help, such as laundry and running errands. If you’re planning to ask your nanny to handle things like this, expect to pay them additional money for these tasks."
The nanny was told the family had found another nanny who would accept $20/hr.
Obviously hoping to use the nanny's reliance on the job as a motivating factor for a better deal, these parents basically tried to pay her less by using the threat of hiring another nanny for cheaper. At first, the parents said they found someone willing to do her exact job for $20/hr, but they would be willing to keep her on at that rate. Seems like a pretty ugly thing to do to the person caring for your children, right?
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She claimed that the most frustrating part about the entire debacle was the fact that the family didn't even attempt to negotiate with her. Considering that she's been their nanny for two years, there should have been at least some loyalty and transparency. If they couldn't afford to pay her the rate she was asking for, they could've explained that to her or at least compromised on the housework.
"Maybe the price increase was too much, but I would have preferred they be upfront about that when I asked, or at least given me the courtesy of notice so I could look for a different job. Has anyone else dealt with something like this? How did you handle it without burning bridges?" she questioned.
Commenters were adamant that this was no longer a healthy working environment for her, but left her with some important advice. These parents likely didn't have another nanny lined up. They just didn't want to pay her well. That's a hard pill to swallow after spending two years with a family, but it's certainly an important lesson to learn. Most advised her to wish them well and depart with the message that she had found a new position paying $30/hr without housework, even though it wasn't true. The thinking, if they did find someone for $20/hr to do everything she had been doing for the family, it wasn't going to last, and they'd come crawling back, giving her the opportunity to get every dime out of them she could.
It's obvious that this is no longer a healthy working environment for this nanny, and at the very least, she should move on knowing she advocated for herself and her worth.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
