How much to pay a babysitter

G51shopaholic

If she uses a registered childminder then Tax Credits would pay 70% of cost.

I take it there are no family nearby - personally I would not leave my 10yr old overnight with anyone other than a FULLY vetted and police check professional.

Sounds like she needs to employ a Nanny if she expects someone to run after him with club activities etc.

Can he not go stay with his dad or grandparents that weekend?

hermum

Spendless wrote: »

What time does she start having your friend's son on the evenings she works? That might be an idea to base what to offer on.

I think it's about 8-8.30, and would get home anytime from 11-midnight. I guess if you say 8-12 then she's paying £6.25 an hour & she could base it on that.
She wants to make sure that she offers enough as the sitter is a gem the lad's happy with her & she's reliable etc.
The lady apparently isn't the sort to say how much she would expect (or if she would even have an idea of how much to ask for) & my friend doesn't want to take the mickey.
She's well aware that looking after a child is a huge responsibility & needs to be paid appropriately.

hermum

G51shopaholic wrote: »

If she uses a registered childminder then Tax Credits would pay 70% of cost.

I take it there are no family nearby - personally I would not leave my 10yr old overnight with anyone other than a FULLY vetted and police check professional.

Sounds like she needs to employ a Nanny if she expects someone to run after him with club activities etc.

Can he not go stay with his dad or grandparents that weekend?

I live near a nursery school where the police vetted & checked professional is serving a very long sentence for sexually abusing the children in her care.
She won't be eligible for tax credits or very little & there are no childminders locally who do overnighters.
The sitter has been looking after him on occasions since he was a toddler.

Waffle_On

For a non-qualified person that is being paid cash in hand, around £5 an hour is roughly the going rate in my area (midlands). I would say that being paid the same rate whilst sleeping on the off-chance they might have to wake up isn't a bad deal.

claire16c

I babysit regularly, and I get paid or ask for about £7 an hour, but ask for £10 an hour after midnight because I really find it hard to stay awake after that with just the tv to amuse me and to dsicourage the parents from staying out til 4am! Most parents round up and give me petrol money, food etc anyway, so it generally ends up being about £10 an hour on average.

I have looked after kids overnight before, and Ive been paid about £100-150, depending on what time I looked after them in the day time from. For example if I came round at say 8 Id get about £100, but if I started at say 4pm Id get more.

I never asked for a specific amount but I know the families I work for always pay me well so I dont really think about it too much- some of them are quite well off though, and I have to say I do take this into consideration and if it was a single parent I would expect less. I dont expect them to pay me per hour over the night, because its unlikely Id have to get up anyway, its just more for the inconvience of not being in my own house, and incase something did happen, so Id hope to get at least £100.

So if I was being asked to stay til 4pm the next day, I would probably count that as 'working' from say 4pm-11pm or so when I went to bed, so 7 hours at £7 = £49. Then say the kid was up at 8am, 8 til 4 would be 8 hours, so £56, which would make total of £105, but then I had stayed over night so would prob expect £120-150 - depending on who the parents were and if I had had to get up in the night etc.

However if she only get £25 for an evening, then maybe you could add on the £25 to £56 which would be £81, but round up to £100-110.

So I basically agree with kiki!

One other thing - if someone pays me well, I will cancel a night out (unless it was say a best friends birthday or wedding or something quite important) to go babysitting. If someone paid me badly I would not. So if I get paid well I will make myself as available as possible! So if she finds it hard to find someone to do this type of work I think its worth paying well for to ensure the lady keeps doing it.

hermum

claire16c wrote: »

I babysit regularly, and I get paid or ask for about £7 an hour, but ask for £10 an hour after midnight because I really find it hard to stay awake after that with just the tv to amuse me and to dsicourage the parents from staying out til 4am! Most parents round up and give me petrol money, food etc anyway, so it generally ends up being about £10 an hour on average.

I have looked after kids overnight before, and Ive been paid about £100-150, depending on what time I looked after them in the day time from. For example if I came round at say 8 Id get about £100, but if I started at say 4pm Id get more.

I never asked for a specific amount but I know the families I work for always pay me well so I dont really think about it too much- some of them are quite well off though, and I have to say I do take this into consideration and if it was a single parent I would expect less. I dont expect them to pay me per hour over the night, because its unlikely Id have to get up anyway, its just more for the inconvience of not being in my own house, and incase something did happen, so Id hope to get at least £100.

So if I was being asked to stay til 4pm the next day, I would probably count that as 'working' from say 4pm-11pm or so when I went to bed, so 7 hours at £7 = £49. Then say the kid was up at 8am, 8 til 4 would be 8 hours, so £56, which would make total of £105, but then I had stayed over night so would prob expect £120-150 - depending on who the parents were and if I had had to get up in the night etc.

However if she only get £25 for an evening, then maybe you could add on the £25 to £56 which would be £81, but round up to £100-110.

So I basically agree with kiki!

Thank you for that, the evening when she pays £25 is for 4-5 hours, so she can class it as £6.25 an hour, it's the overnight she's most stuck with really & also not sure whether she should pay more for the Saturday as the sitter would only have a few hours off late afternoon early evening before she has him again.
Basing it more or less on what you get paid, if I understand it correctly
Evening £25
Overnight £100
8am -4pm £50 (8 hours @6.25 per hour)
£175 for Friday evening Saturday day

Evening £25
Overnight £100
8-9am £6.25
£131.25 for Saturday evening & overnight

£306.25 for the weekend:eek:

This sitter has been doing the odd evening for most of the lads life, I think she's on the schools contact list if he's unwell etc. Almost a surrogate Gran, so will always be reliable. That's one of the reasons that my friend doesn't want to seem to be taking the mickey.
She just wants to be sure that she's paying her fairly as she knows that he's safe, happy and well cared for.
The perfect sitter really.

claire16c

hermum wrote: »

Thank you for that, the evening when she pays £25 is for 4-5 hours, so she can class it as £6.25 an hour, it's the overnight she's most stuck with really & also not sure whether she should pay more for the Saturday as the sitter would only have a few hours off late afternoon early evening before she has him again.
Basing it more or less on what you get paid, if I understand it correctly
Evening £25
Overnight £100
8am -4pm £50 (8 hours @6.25 per hour)
£175 for Friday evening Saturday day

Evening £25
Overnight £100
8-9am £6.25
£131.25 for Saturday evening & overnight

£306.25 for the weekend:eek:

This sitter has been doing the odd evening for most of the lads life, I think she's on the schools contact list if he's unwell etc. Almost a surrogate Gran, so will always be reliable. That's one of the reasons that my friend doesn't want to seem to be taking the mickey.
She just wants to be sure that she's paying her fairly as she knows that he's safe, happy and well cared for.
The perfect sitter really.

When I said I expect £100-150 overnight, I dont mean literally just for the overnight bit, I mean in total for the whole lot - sorry I should have been clearer.

So if I was there til 4pm the next day, I would expect £120-£150 - (£50 coming from the evening, £56 for the 8am til 4pm, and then a bit extra for staying the night and/or a nice tip )

But if she only get £25 for an evening, then maybe you could add on the £25 to £56 which would be £81, but round up to £100-110.


But, I didnt realise she was coming back to do the 2nd night in a few hours time, so I guess £120-£150 for the first day/night, and then whatever you pay her for the next evening I suppose £25 and then Id probably pay her I dont know maybe £25 for staying over night so make that £50 total. Then if shes really needed for that hour in the morning Id add on another hour.

So about £180- £200 for the whole weekend. If it was me I would probably expect £200 ( and I generally get about £40-50 for an evening)as that is quite a lot of baby sitting!

hermum

claire16c wrote: »

When I said I expect £100-150 overnight, I dont mean literally just for the overnight bit, I mean in total for the whole lot - sorry I should have been clearer.

So if I was there til 4pm the next day, I would expect £120-£150 - (£50 coming from the evening, £56 for the 8am til 4pm, and then a bit extra for staying the night and/or a nice tip )

But if she only get £25 for an evening, then maybe you could add on the £25 to £56 which would be £81, but round up to £100-110.

How many hours would you be doing of an evening to get £50? She pays the £25 for about 4 hours.
£20 ish for an overnight sounds rubbish to me, I know that he will be asleep but it's such a huge responsibility looking after someone else's child.
When I worked in care years ago I got £30 for sleep in, & we had waking staff so never got called on.
I'll let her know what has been said.

Mum will be doing, (actually I've been saying Friday Saturday night) but it's actually Saturday & Sunday night.
So the sitter will be taking him to school on Monday morning.
The sitter will have complete sole charge, unless there was an emergency that meant Mum leaving work to deal with it, there is nobody else, so lots of responsibility.

Thank you.

Wilma33

Wouldn't it be easier if the boy went and stayed at the childminders house for the weekend for a fixed amount (say £150/£200?). If it was me, I would rather the child came to stay than me spending all weekend in the child's house. I would want paying less if I was in my own house as you could get on with chores etc.

The amount would also depend a lot on the child! Firstly how he behaves during the day and also how well he sleeps, whether he wets the bed regularly, etc.

Are you sure she can do this without being registered (I'm not sure either way)?

claire16c

hermum wrote: »

How many hours would you be doing of an evening to get £50? She pays the £25 for about 4 hours.
£20 ish for an overnight sounds rubbish to me, I know that he will be asleep but it's such a huge responsibility looking after someone else's child.
When I worked in care years ago I got £30 for sleep in, & we had waking staff so never got called on.
I'll let her know what has been said.
Thank you.

Last week I babysat from 8pm til 1.30am and got £50. So 5.5 hours and til quite late. But sometimes theyll pay me £60 for the same. Seems to depend on what notes the Dad has in his wallet! lol For 4 hours Id probably expect about £30 if Im charging £7 an hour as its kind of embarassing if a parent were to count out pound coins to make it £28!

However Im babysitting for another couple this week for 3 hours, 8-11, I reckon I'll get about £25-30 and maybe a few quid for petrol - it really does depend on the family they can all pay quite differently, but the main families I baby sit for just seem to pay me £50-60 , but I do tend to be there a bit longer and later than what your friend is doing.

I think if I was looking after say a baby who was up in the night, I would expect to be paid throughout the night per hour. But one of the kids I babysit is 11, and so its unlikely Id even have to get up. The parents also leave enough food for me to eat with them, give us dvds etc, I honestly quite enjoy it!

But lets say the little boy woke up, was sick or something, then Id expect to get extra maybe?