Hoooow much?!

gabyjane

Spendless my mindees have as much or as little time off as they wish with a charge of half fee (some restrict this) i have 2 weeks a year and the odd day off if really needed..i give usually at least 6 months notice and other minders to help out so they have no childcare worries but yes they do then have to pay 1.5 times the childcare but there is the option for them to have the same time off as me as such.
The reason i started doing this was due to going away one year and losing so much money i couldn't afford to do it, selfish as it may sound i work to have holidays etc and felt like i was then working for nothing so put the idea forward to parents and had no arguments and has been like that for the last few years (i have most of the same mindees still too!)
If i was a hairdresser no i wouldn't get paid for going on holiday BUT imo it is not the same, a child needs to have stability and coming to me every day (like a nursery) won't usually change so i have a system in place like this that suits me and them..if people don't like it there are other minders.
Nurserys charge full round where i live for this reason and more than me so i don't feel too bad!

Debt_Free_Chick

Spendless wrote: »

May I ask why you charge when you are off (I understand when the minded child is off). If you were SE in any other profession, eg if you were a mobile hairdresser you wouldn't charge for the shampoo & set you weren't doing, cos you were away.

But what you do charge would be an amount to cover your holiday.

If you are self employed and working Monday to Friday, there are only 240 days of the year for you to earn a full year's salary, if you take 4 weeks holiday. And in those 240 days, you need to do your admin, accounts, chasing payments, ordering stock etc etc

gabyjane

See childminding is different as you have stay in line with nurserys but more so other childminders otherwise no matter how good you are most parents tend to go for the cheapest..sad as that is! I charge £4 per hour per child or a daily fee depending on hours needed..no where near the minimum wage and yes i have more than 1 child but this is not the case all the time.

gabyjane

Also! re reading spendless's quote above people get holiday pay from companys while they are away and so if they don't pay their minder while they are away they are quids in aren't they? It's like saying to the council tax etc that you are not paying anything as you are not going to be there..doesn't work like that does it unfortunatly!

Spendless

gabyjane wrote: »

Also! re reading spendless's quote above people get holiday pay from companys while they are away and so if they don't pay their minder while they are away they are quids in aren't they? It's like saying to the council tax etc that you are not paying anything as you are not going to be there..doesn't work like that does it unfortunatly!

I wasn't asking about when the customer went away but the provider. I was trying to understand why in some professions SE charge for not providing a service on a certain day when others don't.

But going back to peple getting holiday pay, that would only happen if they weren't SE themselves.

gabyjane

Hi yeah i know what you meant but it works both ways doesn't it? my parents are employed so therefore do get holiday, if they were SE they would be in the same boat as me i guess..and have to think hard about time off more.
When my parents go away or i do and it is half fee they only pay me half and effectively get to keep the rest as i find most take the time off anyway..this way they are still ok as they are saving half their bill and getting holiday pay too. Obviously if they pay another minder they are paying more but still with 6 months+ notice from me they can accomodate this surely.
hope that makes sense!

gabyjane

Also sorry keep forgetting to add! hairdressers for example couldn't really charge when they go away as they don't have the same clients all the time..they never know who they have really and when so cannot effectively charge mrs smith for a day when she may not attend..i know my mindees will as they need me all the time and use the same days etc.

seven-day-weekend

Re the dog: My friends have three dogs and have dogsitters at their house while they are away. I don't know how much this costs though and it would probably only be worthwhile if you had more than one dog.

(ETA: a quick google found this : http://www.happypetsitting.co.uk/The%20Happy%20Pet%20Sitting%20Service%20Ltd%20Services%20offered.htm

Fly_Baby

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Your childminder has an annual rate of pay she (or he!) needs to achieve. Let's say it's £12k pa

You want her to have your little un for an hour a week. That's 52 hours each year. But you want 6 weeks holiday each year - fair enough.

52 hours a year to earn £12k is £230 per week. So she needs to earn this each and every week including those weeks when she has no children to mind.

Her choice is to charge you 1/52 of the annual cost of minding your child each week. Or, if you have 6 weeks holiday, then your childminder charges you 1/46 of her annual charge, but only for those weeks when your child is with her. So .... 1/46 of her annual charge (£12k) over 46 weeks is £260 per week.

You either pay £230 per week for 52 weeks of the year i.e. including those weeks when you are on holiday, or £260 per week for 46 weeks of the year, so that you get 6 weeks "free" when you pay nothing.

Overall, you pay £x spread over the year.

Some childminders charge for their holidays, some don't (mine didn't). It is not a law and not the parent's obligation, it is the childminder's pure choice. Why do they do that? Basically, because they can. If a parent doesn't have a choice of 5 childminders and only found one who has vacancies and yet this parent needs childcare, then they have no choice but to pay whatever this particular childminder pleases.

By law though, childminders are self-employed. They are not supposed to get any different treatment. And this kind of occupation does not presume paid annual leave. Most self-employed people either don't have holidays or don't get paid when they have them.

Childminders charging for their holidays is even more outrageous because parents have to pay for childcare elsewhere. What other self-employed person can say to their client: "I am not going to be able to deliver the service because I am on my leave so you must find an alternative and pay for this service elsewhere, but make sure you still pay me as well as though I am at work".

If the childminder wants their paid leave they can go to work in the nursery.

Fly_Baby

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

If your holiday is different to hers, then she's lost a place which she would otherwise charge to another child.

She would hardly get another child for 2-3 weeks only.