What factors should you consider when deciding what you should pay your babysitter?
We’ve put together this list for you to consider:
The babysitter
The fifteen year old kid next door is going to be at a different pay rate from the twenty year old ECE student. Age, experience and qualifications of your future sitter are all factors in deciding a rate.
Age
Some teenagers are very responsible and some adults are not but, on the whole, you should expect to pay a higher rate for an adult who is minding children as a source of income. Rates aside, the age of your babysitter might be a factor if you need them, for example, to care for a newborn. Someone with more qualifications or experience might be a better fit in that case.
Qualifications
Does your sitter have a certificate in Early Childhood Education or a babysitting course from the local community centre? Consider what you need / want in a sitter because the more qualified they are, the higher rate you should expect to pay.
Experience
If you are looking for a babysitter with more experience than babysitting little brothers and sisters or if you are looking for someone with specific experience (dealing with medical issues / special needs children, for example), you should be prepared to pay more for these qualifications.
Your kids
If you child needs special care, the number of kids you have, other tasks required to be done by the babysitter, where you are located, and the hours requested to babysit will all have an impact on what you should pay your babysitter.
Special care
Do your kids need special care? Administration of medicine, special needs, autism, ADHD, or a disability? The rate of pay should reflect the extra care and qualifications that your sitter will need to provide.
Number of kids
Do you have one kid or six? A sitter’s pay should reflect the number of children in their care, as well as the relative ages of those kids. Two school aged children have a different set of care requirements from a newborn and toddler combination. Basically, younger children = higher pay. More kids = higher pay.
The babysitting job or more
Tasks OTHER than child care. Do you need to babysitter to do something other than play with / mind and care for the kids? Cleaning, for example? Or meal preparation? Each ‘additional’ task should factor into the rate being set.
Hours required to babysit your child
The odd evening out or every day throughout the summer? Whether you need a babysitter on an occasional basis or consistently, the number of hours and time of day as well as consistency of work should factor in to the rate. Typically, evening, weekend and occasional work are at a higher rate of pay than consistent / daytime work.
Your location
If the sitter has to drive a fair distance to get to your home, you might want to consider a premium for transportation.
Babysitter rate
Once you and your babysitter have agreed to a rate, review it every 6 months or so to make sure that all of the factors above are still more or less the same. If your sitter has acquired more qualifications or you have had more kids or added to the list of tasks, you might want to revisit the rate.
Ultimately, you want your kids to be cared for by someone who is happy to do the job and part of that comes from being paid appropriately for the skills that they bring to the role. If they are spending a lot of time with your kids, the babysitter is having a direct impact on their growth and happiness, so it’s important to keep communication lines open!
SOSsitter.ca is a Canadian portal designed to help you find local caregivers in your area, easily and quickly. The babysitter who is right for your family is only a click away.
This post is sponsored by SOSsitter.ca.
Is anyone willing to share a sample rate? I have a friend who will be watching my toddler for 5 hours in an evening and is saying she will do it for free, but we don’t feel it’s right to take advantage of her generosity.
I don’t have a clue how much to actually pay a sitter anymore! My kids are lucky as we (grandma and grandpa) do it free for them!
I have no clue what to pay a babysitter these days but after raising a few and knowing the job I think the pay should be set between you and her and it should depend on what you expect her job duties to be
I pay the babysitter regardless – if I cancel, she’s out an entire day’s work and that doesn’t seem fair since we’re her main source of income. If I gave her advance warning, I might feel differently, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Prices have changed since mine were little. My kids later on earnt quite well babysitting but I would have no idea what the going rate is these days. I babysit my grandkids for free, also for longer periods of time too though then I do usually get a present. 🙂
I too have no idea what to pay a babysitter. I’m a grandmother now and take care of my grandkids to help out. I am glad I am no longer in the position to sort this issue out as a parent.
This is challenging! My daughter is now old enough to bbsit and she states her rates up front, but it’s always hard to know what is appropriate! Thanks for the tips
I pay my babysitter what i would want to be paided,its a big job.