by Amy L. Hatch
Finding a babysitter and actually scheduling him or her for that rare date night is an exercise akin to the invasion of Normandy. And then, as if that wasn’t hard enough, you have to decide how much to pay them.
Some of you tip, and some of you pay more for more mature babysitters. Photo by Amy L. Hatch
Rates for babysitters vary wildly from region to region: For instance, according to Sittercity.com‘s babysitter rates calculator, the going rate in New York City is $14 an hour for a babysitter between the ages of 18 and 21 who will watch two kids between the ages of 2 and 4.
While the Sittercity.com calculator is a pretty cool little widget, we went one step further and asked real Chambana moms what they fork over for a night out, in an informal Facebook poll.
While the rates varied from the low end ($5 an hour) to the high ($15 an hour), most of you told us that you pay your babysitters $10 an hour to take care of your kids, especially those sitters who were college-age or older. That doesn’t mean that all sitters merit that hefty sum, however.
“Honestly, it depends on which sitter we hire,” wrote reader Heather Ball. “We have one that we adore and we pay her $10 an hour (we have two children). And the others we pay $7 an hour, with a $5 tip.”
But $10 is Ball’s upper limit when it comes to paying for in-home, occasional childcare.
“I once had someone tell me she charged $15 an hour!” she added. “I asked her if she was Mary Poppins!”
However, when it comes to more than just the odd night out, some of our readers are willing to pay a little bit more. We had several moms tell us that they pay between $13 and $15 an hour, because, as Karen Hatch points out: “Why low-ball the cost of care for the most important people in your life? You get what you pay for.”
Hourly rates seem to be the norm for a-la-carte childcare or after-school care, but some of you will set a flat rate for a more regular schedule. Reader Dorothy Ann David tells us that she pays her “summer nanny” $250 per week, plus expenses. That makes a lot of sense if you’re trying to set a specific child-care budget.
Tipping was also a surprise — lots of you do it, especially those who pay under $10 an hour. We also found that some of you will pay less for a sitter who isn’t quite as mature. High school or junior high students in Chambana seem to be getting between $5 and $8, according to our informal poll.
That $10 is going a long way for a lot of you — your babysitters also tidy up, feed the kids and do some light housework. In fact, Dana G. Williams knows she’s getting a good deal, based on the quality of babysitter she’s been able to find.
“Our babysitters have vaired from a favorite pre-school teacher to a speech therapist to a fertility specialist to a special-education master’s degree student to an elementary school teacher,” Williams says. “Somehow, I always feel like I’m under-paying them.”
Looking for a sitter? Check out our guide to finding the right one.
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$10 an hour or MORE, are you kidding me, I though this was supposed to be for champaign urbana moms, ALL of them, not just the rich ones!?!?! I only get paid $10 an hour so for me to pay a sitter that much or more is crazy, unless it is just for an hour or two. As licensed daycares charge around $4 an hour give or take, there is not a prayer that I would pay any teenybopper the same amount or more to watch my child as a daycare center, unless again I say it is for an hour or two.
Yes I realize that daycare centers have more children and therefore they can charge less because the cost is then spread out. However if I am paying a teenager to watch my child after school for a week, that is approximately 13 hours, I am not paying them $130 or more! That is a third of my income, and at a center I could pay that plus another $70 dollars and that would pay for the ENTIRE MONTH, plus generally centers accept CCRS and teenagers don’t and I don’t even think they can.
I was a teeneger not all that long ago, and when I entered the work force minimum wage was $4.25, and I babysat and for four to five hours, I would earn , in total, $5. Now minimum wage has almost doubled but the babysitters wage has increased 500%?!? How does that work exactly?