How Much Should You Pay Your Babysitter? A Guest Post
ByToday’s post is by Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians. Craig is a missionary overseas who writes about issues related to faith and finances. If you read his blog you’ll learn about things like how to afford to be a stay at home wife. Since I’ve never had a CLUE how much to pay a babysitter, I am SO excited about his guest post today!!
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One of the reasons why some people don’t like to get babysitters is because they are clueless about the going rate. They want to pay the babysitter a decent amount, but they also want to be sure they are are not overpaying the babysitter.
One way around a paid baby sitter is by forming a frugal community. This way you can share babysitting responsibilities, and the best part is that no one pays anything.
However, there will still be occasions where you need a babysitter.
A Guide For Determining How Much To Pay Your Babysitter:
- Ask your babysitter – If you are contacting a new babysitter, don’t be afraid to ask about their usual rate. Some babysitters have an hourly rate set.
- Ask your friends – If you have a new baby, call someone in your church and ask them what they typically pay for a babysitter. If the amount sounds off, make a couple of calls so you have a point of comparison.
- Check online – The babysitter rate calculator allows you to enter your zip code, age of the sitter, and their years of experience, and they will give you a suggested rate. I was shocked to see an 18 year old with a couple of years of experience suggested $13.25. Either I’ve lived overseas too long, or I’m in the wrong business. On the other hand, an About.com article suggests we pay babysitters between $4 – $12 per hour. In general, on Yahoo answers, the consensus was much lower – closer to $5-$6 for a babysitter.
- Compare it to other typical teen jobs. What is McDonald’s paying new workers?
Factors that Influence Babysitter Pay:
- Age of the babysitter – Obviously, your 12 year old neighbor is going to make less than a 19 year old college student.
- Number of kids – Are you a Cheaper By the Dozen family? Well, you’re really going to pay for it.
- Age of the kids – The younger and more dependant they are, the more it is going to cost.
- Is your kid difficult? Some babysitters deserve more money just because your kid is a lot of work.
- Special needs – Do you need a babysitter with any special qualifications? If so, the sitter should be compensated accordingly.
- Time of day – If the kids are going to be sleeping for 1/2 of the night, then the babysitter does not need to be paid as much.
- Weekends vs. Weeknights – Weekends cost more.
- Location – How far do you live from your babysitter? Does he or she need to drive a long distance? Are you providing transportation?
- Are you exchanging anything else? Providing the babysitter a meal or allowing them to do their laundry is a good way to offer a non-financial incentive.
We all know raising kids can be expensive. However by saving money while raising young kids we can always make a dollar go just a little bit further. So here’s ..
5 Ways to Reduce Babysitting Costs:
- Find someone you know. Teenagers at church often already have a relationship with your kids and are happy to do it for a service with less pay. Just don’t take advantage of them.
- Offer non-financial benefits. This could include making the job easier by setting rules for your kids. Rent their favorite movie for after the kids go to bed. Cook their favorite meal. Tutor them.
- Go out on week nights. Babysitters are in less demand during the week.
- Move overseas. I pay my babysitter $1.25 per hour, and that’s double minimum wage! Still, I’m not sure that babysitting rates are a big enough reason for moving overseas. What do you think?
- Plan at home dates. For several months, one night a week my wife and put the kids to bed and then cooked a late dinner together. Creativity can make an at home date a lot of fun. Anytime you avoid the restaurant you save money.
How much do you pay your babysitter? What do you think is a fair rate? How do you determine how much to pay your babysitter? How do you reduce babysitting costs?
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesdays at We are THAT Family.
We just plain don’t go anywhere without our kids. Now that we have five, though, and live back in town, I have asked my folks to watch them for the odd doctor appointment, when David is unable to take time off work.
David and I don’t get out together, but I guess it isn’t keeping our family from growing any…obviously….LOL. We do save a lot of money. I can’t imagine the cost!
And we don’t put them into any kind of childcare, either. So, we are that really strange family taking up a whole pew in church, hehehe.
Kris
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Long time reader, first time poster. I absolutely appreciate seeking out ways to save money, but I disagree with a few ideas put forth in this article.
First, about.com might suggest paying $4/hr (depending on circumstances), but I disagree here. I was charging $4/hr to babysit when I was 13. In 1994. At the very least, I would suggest starting at minimum wage depending on experience and how familiar the sitter is with the kids (and I’d round it up to the closest dollar, honestly).
I also disagree with paying a babysitter less per hour just because the children might be asleep part of the time. Does the babysitter have to put the kids to bed? Feed them dinner? Even if the kids are already asleep when the sitter shows up, he/she will have to be alert and ready to remedy any issues while there. And as we all know, just because the kids are in bed when mom and dad go out, it doesn’t mean they’re going to stay in bed while the sitter is there.
Weekends vs. weeknights? Kids don’t care. They’re active and full of energy every day of the week. A good sitter shouldn’t force you into a bidding war with other clients on the weekends, IMO.
Anyway, thanks for giving me a small soapbox! I know how time consuming it can be to find a good reliable sitter. All my best to your family and all your readers’ families!
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My daughter is 15 months and I’ve been lucky to have family around and not have to pay for a sitter. But we’re moving from TX to CA this summer and I don’t know what I’m going to do about babysitting!!
When I was babysitting in high school and college I got about $7/hour here in TX and sometimes felt like I deserved more because of all my experience and that I was in high demand.
I’m interested in seeing what others say.
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We have a 1 year old and a 3 year old and pay $5/hour. My husband is a high school teacher so generally his students are thrilled to be asked to baby-sit. We do have a few former students who drive themselves over and are in college so we round up for them!
We do try and use family in town, but we like to go out and hate to take advantage!
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I usually try to pay $3 per kid per hour. We have 3 kids so that is $9 an hour. We usually round up to $10 since our dog is kinda like a kid. We try to go out on dates about once a month. But, since my husband is in the military and away from home quite a bit, it is less often than that. Having a good babysitter is very important to me, if I am worried about how the kids are doing I will not enjoy my time out. So, even though it may seem like we pay a lot, it is worth it to me to have an enjoyable evening with my hubby every few months.
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Thanks for posting this. I’m in the boat of not wanting to get a sitter since I don’t know what’s fair to pay.
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Wow, I never treated the sitters like employees – minimum wage would have meant I didn’t go anywhere for 13 years. They were young kids looking to make some extra money. I was blessed that my younger cousins babysat for $2 an hour and never complained. I am glad I haven’t needed to pay in a lot of years – I never pay my own kids to watch their younger siblings, it is part of the perks of having a large family!
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This is something I’ve wondered about too, so thanks for the guest post!
We have at-home date nights a lot (http://momsinneedofmercy.blogspot.com/2009/09/romance-your-spouse-without-spending.html), which have merged into more family dates, but we’re happy with it for this season of our lives!
We are trying to have one date night out a month, though. Friends in our area said about $3/hr per kid is about right. If we have someone over 16, we pay $10/hr; otherwise, $8/hr. Yes, it gets expensive, which is why we don’t do it often. BUT…as my husband so wisely said, these are our kids. We don’t really want to do it on the cheap. They are our most precious possessions, and we want to pay accordingly for them to be cared for well while we are away.
Another idea is to ask older people in your church if they would be willing to babysit your children for two-three hours one day a month as a marriage ministry. You get a date, your children are in great hands, and it’s free!
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wow, in this area babysitting rates are MUCH higher. About $10/hr for the first kid, and between $2 and $5 more for each kid after that. I’m really thankful for having so many relatives nearby that are keen to babysit the only grandkid/nephew on either side of the family! When we move in 2 years that’s going to be the hardest thing to give up. I know some families trade babysitting when needed.
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I’m a babysitter. I have a job but am also a student. My rate is ten dollars an hour. Whether the kids are asleep or not. Weekend or weekday. I would be offended if someone tried to pay me less per hour just becuase the kids were going to sleep, I would still have to be there.
I posted some “how to keep a good babysitter tips” for Works for me Wednesday here: http://emptyhandedbutaliveinhishands.blogspot.com/2010/03/wfmw-how-to-keep-good-sitter.html
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@Laura
This feels like sacred ground. Will this be the first time for a male to ever leave a comment on your site?
@LK
Thanks for your comment.
Please don’t understand this post to be saying that people should pay babysitters $4. Sorry, if I didn’t explain that clearly. You’re right, that is too low. I think if someone followed all four guidelines they are much more likely to find the ‘right’ price.
As for the kids sleeping and weekend vs. weeknight see my response to @Elizabeth.
@Elizabeth
My wife completely agrees with you – the pay should be the same and it doesn’t matter if kids are asleep or not.
I always preferred to babysit when parents would be out till 1 or 2 a.m. In those cases I might watch the kids for a few hours and then do whatever I wanted. For me, I always thought that was a great deal. In those cases, the parents would ask if “x” was alright since the kids would be sleeping most of the time. I would say yes. The beauty is that as long as the parent is happy and the babysitter is happy then it is a win/win for everyone.
You are in a good situation because you know and feel comfortable with your hourly rate. That really makes it easy for parents.
As for the weekends it is simply an issue of supply and demand. More couples go out on a Friday or Saturday night. There might be a time when you ask your usual babysitter and he/she is already booked to babysit for someone. In that case, you will need to find someone different and that might be a person who charges more.
It is not to say that a babysitter should/could charge more weekend vs. weekday, but there will be more demand to find the right babysitter on a weekend. When there is more demand you are more likely to pay more.
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I pay $10 per hour for a babysitter for my 3 kids. It doesn’t matter when they are babysitting – during the day, weeknight, weekend. I usually use college students from the local Christian college. If they are younger (under 15), I will often check with the parents as to how much to pay them.
“Non-financial incentives” – basically they can eat anything in our cupboards – doesn’t lower how much we pay. It only is a perk to the job.
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I pay about $10/hr here in the mid-atlantic for a 13-17 yo. About $12 for a college student.
When I babysat back in the day, I used to barter my babysitting. Soemthing to consider to make it more frugal. For example, I wanted a perm in 8th grade (oh, what was I thinking?) so i bartered with a local hairdresser so many hours of babysitting for a perm. I babysat for a local artist and I bartered babysitting for art lessons – best trade ever. she was wonderful! Do you have any services you could trade?
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Some of these are great ideas, but i have to disagree w/ paying less for a younger babysitter. You are still trusting the babysitter (at whatever age) to care for YOUR kids, the kids you love and care for, the kids that you want to have the BEST care possible. So, why would you pay less for a younger sitter? If the issue is that you don’t trust them as much, then don’t hire them at all.
I was babysitting infants when I was 11, but there’s NO WAY I’d leave an infant with an 11 year old now. In fact, I struggle w/ hiring a high schooler, but I won’t pay less based on age.
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Like a few others who posted, I was a babysitter at a young age and continued through college. This would have spanned the years of around 1991-2000, and even in ‘91 I was charging $7 an hour. By the time I graduated college it was a minimum of $10, though most people paid more than that. I suspect the area of the country that you live in has alot to do with it, but I can’t imagine $4.00 being acceptable anywhere, unless it was someone doing you a favor. (For example, I do have a friend who will be watching my daughter one day a week for a few months, and she’ll only charge $25.00 for an 8 hr day.)
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As a long time babysitter it was interesting to read this post. When I first started babysitting about 10 years ago the going rate was $5 an hour. Now for someone my age (early 20’s) the going rate is $10 at least. Most sitters that I know that are my age make about $12-$15 an hour or more. But as you mentioned we are older and more qualified (I have 10 years experience plus a degree in Elementary Education) so that changes things up. My best advice would be to find a young high schooler and get to know her and keep her around as a babysitter for a while. This is when you can pay a little more cheaply and get a great sitter who will have fun with your kids! When I was younger I really didn’t care too terribly much about how much I made (I would never tell families from church how much to pay me). I did, however, build some great relationships with a couple families. They not only had me over to play with their kids they would take the time to talk with me and invest in my life as a teenager. To me that made me feel like a part of their “family” and I enjoyed going back to babysit, no matter how much they paid me.
I loved your creative ideas to alternatives to getting a babysitter, they are great! I would also suggest to get to know older couples that have kids in college or older and don’t have little ones around the house anymore. My parents are in their 50’s and every so often watch a younger couple from church’s kids for a night for nothing just because they miss having little kids to play with! My mom also has some friends kids over for a morning to play, help her in the garden, or go swimming when their mom has to work occasionally.
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This seems to be a hot topic! I am so glad you had this post because we are using a new babysitter this Friday. The minimum wage for our state is $7.25 and she is a senior in high school. I am debating between $8-$9. I agree with an above poster that while it may be expensive, we don’t do it often and she is taking care of our child!!
*I might need to pay extra b/c he is in “terrible two” phase :)
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Wow. I made $6 an hour when I was babysitting 14 years ago! Usually I say for 3 kids for 4 hours and once they were in bed, I would clean up from dinner, etc, so they always gave me an extra hours worth or more in tip (I don’t think they ever cleaned themselves… *shutter*).
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In our church we have quite a few couples in college and with 2 or more kids. So we try to swap babysitting, so no one has to pay. Otherwise most of us never would get out. And a huge perk is they are adults I trust with and parents!
Also there are people who are happy to do it just because they want to be helpful or they don’t have children, often we will get the couple a gift card to a restaurant. That way it is like a gift of appreciation, better than handing them a twenty and still cheaper than paying by the hour. Honestly we don’t ask teenagers, we feel so much better having an adult and only people that are from our church and know very well.
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Since we go on date nights once a week (a must our opinion), we had to find a great babysitter. And we are in luck we have a young lady who has younger siblings, and is great w/them. She’s firm, they listen etc. And we can see her interaction w/her siblings at church. Our children adore her, adn look forward each time to seeing her. Unfortunately, she graduates HS this year, (and going away to college) so we’ll be looking for someone else.
We do pay her well ($10/child, per hour), but we also make sure we have some of her favorite foods at our house. One of our rules is that she leaves her cell phone at home, (she LOVES to text lol) and her mom confiscates the phone before she leaves. Her parents have our number if they need her for anything. She has no problem doing that either.
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My husband and I have an older child (away at college) and a caboose (almost 7). We live near our in-laws, but having a child when you’re 40 means grandparents are well into their 70’s so we don’t ask them to do much babysitting, and nothing at night. My husband is a high school teacher, so we usually have sitters available. When we ask them what they charge per hour, they never tell us. This has always been so, even when our older daughter was little. We decided we need to pay minimum wage. Since the sitters usually drive themselves and we live in a rural area so the distance could be far we give them a bit more. We expect our sitter to engage with our very active son – the caboose – not sit and watch TV or talk on their cell phone all night. When I was a teen and babysitting, I always got mad that people were willing to pay boys more to mow their lawn than girls to babysit their children. I grew up in suburbia so I’m not talking about big lawns. What has more value, your lawn or your children? Something else to think about.
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I think it really depends where you live. Here, in Alberta, rates are lower that I’m seeing mentioned in these responses. Several years ago, as an educator I chose to stay home but ran a part-time dayhome while homeschooling and going rates/day were only $25/child or around $4/hour if paying for only a few hours. I feel that this is a huge disprespect to care givers and to our children – people don’t value them enough to pay a decent wage for thier care. This wage also had to cover food and craft supplies. No wonder it is so difficult to find wonderful child care providers. We’ve rarely had babysitters for our own children, preferring to exchange care with friends (and now my kids are old enough to be home alone/watch the youngest). Teenagers here are paid anywhere from $3-$5/hour regardless of number of children. I must say, though, that occasionally there are families who pay well. My ten year old daughter just had her first babysitting job and worked with another young person to care for five young kids (belonging to a group of three moms) for two hours in the afternoon. Both sitters received $20 for their work!
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Wow! Living in rural Minnesota is quite a bit different. I made $2-$3 per hour when I was in HS and babysitting.
Now we pay $3/hour for 1 child (2 years old). Most people pay $5-$6/hour for more than one child. Also, having great students at church helps a ton! Part time jobs are scarce in this area, so babysitting is about it until students have a car and can drive. It’s also nice to be able to occasionally give these great sitters a “bonus”.
I watch a little boy one day a week while his parents work and I get paid $3/hour. But he comes to my house and plays with my daughter — a great deal for me, I get to be home and still get a few things done and my daughter has a playmate!
I think asking other families from your church is a great way to see what the going rate for babysitting is in your area.
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I commented earlier that we pay $10 an hour and to us that seems like a lot. But, after reading other comments maybe we need to pay more. The girls we use go to our church and when we ask them how much they charge they say “whatever you would like to pay”. They are so good with the kids and we trust them so we want to make sure we are paying them what they deserve. Thanks for all the comments, this is helpful to me.
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Another Alberta girl here. I have to admit reading the posts here had me thinking I needed to phone the mothers of some of our babysitters and see if I was cheaping out – we always paid $5/hr, from when we had 1 right up till we had 4 kids! We actually had one set of parents try to give some of their daughter’s pay back, they thought we paid her too much even at $5. It’s so nice now that our oldest can babysit. She had to take a pay cut, we figure she’s babysitting less kids, and we deserve a family discount! And, church activities are freebies, for us, and we’ve encouraged her to offer the same to others.
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Ontario Canada here.
One new point – when I was a teen babysitter, I often offered my services free of charge (to moms who needed to budget) for church functions. I didn’t want those parents to miss out because they couldn’t afford a babysitter. In exchange, they usually called me first for paying gigs. Generally, it was a 5:1 ratio for me of paying versus service.
We do vary our pay, but we have a base that we start at, and consider it a “bonus” for doing harder or more challenging things. (Base pay seems to vary a lot based on city – here just outside Toronto, Ontario Canada we start at about $6-7 per hour).
Because our babysitters are generally 12 or 13 years old, they are not old enough to get a minimum wage job. You have to be 14 to work here in Ontario. So babysitting does generally pay a little less than minimum wage.
So I start at $7 an hour (2 kids, age 2 and 4), but I pay more for things like making and feeding dinner, or putting the kids to bed. At any job, you can be paid more for more tasks, so I think it’s totally fair to pay different rates depending on what tasks you need the baby sitter to do. If the kids are already in bed, then you are paying the bottom amount, and it can go up from there.
Funny – I always ask what the babysitter charges, and generally I get a “oh, whatever” I remember being shy about setting a rate also when I was a teen. Asking other moms is the best way to gauge it.
(As another bonus, I generally don’t pay in coins, which means that I round up to the nearest $5 bill. It’s important to keep your babysitters happy at your work, or they will always be “busy” when you call!)
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Great topic! I too am curious what others pay and have asked some of my friends but it’s nice to hear other perspectives!
We have one little guy – almost two years old. We pay our teenage babysitter (17) $7 per hour. That is about what min. wage is around here. According to our baby sitter, that is what she gets paid for watching 3+ kids sometimes.
When we have more kids (adopting two right now) we will most likely move to $10/hour.
Our babysitter will be leaving for college in the fall so this summer we will be “training” another gal who is a 9th grader. Sometimes younger girls have a lot of potential but just need to be taught certain skills when it comes to babysitting. Our intention is to have this gal over a dozen times or so this summer for 2-3 hour increments while I am home. That way I can train her while I am here and help her know what I expect and how to handle my children. We will pay her $3-4 an hour during that time since she will not be ultimately responsible for the children. This will also give me a bit of extra time to accomplish tasks (like preserving the summer bounty!!!) while my children are at home but I don’t have to directly supervise them.
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Our kids: 7 and 5 yrs. old
Our sitter: 15 yrs. old
Our pay: $5.00 per hour- bonuses earned if she wases dishes, cleans up toys or gets kids ready for bed.
Simple and affordable. :)
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I have a 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old for for a women over 18 I pay $8-$10 more for weekends.I also live in a pretty cheap area.
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I actually don’t think it needs to be that complicated! Five years ago I was nannying a 6-month-old for $6/hr. (If there had been more kids, the price would have been only slightly higher.)
No bonuses, rate hikes, discounts, or anything silly! I knew the family, liked them, and we just agreed on the price and that was that. Bonuses and incentives would have only made things uncomfortable for both parties.
Also, if the babysitter is older, cash is definitely appreciated (no taxes!).
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There’s no way on earth I could afford some of these rates. Around here (southeast Idaho), young teenagers are mostly glad to get a little bit of extra cash. I actually had one mom tell me if I hired her kids, they got $1/hr, period, regardless of how many kids they were watching. That’s a bit low, but I usually pay about $3/hr. for my two kids, and it seems to be okay. Yes, they are watching my kids, but if I didn’t trust them, I wouldn’t call them. There’s just no way, if you’re living off of one $12/hr income that you can afford a $10/hr babysitter. I’m also just talking about an occasional date night, not full time child care. But there’s obviously a huge variance around the country.
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I must say that we’re extremely blessed to have family(grandparents and aunts and uncles)nearby to babysit. I know not everyone has that, but Please Don’t leave your child with a stranger! Surely you have someone you know at church, a friend-somebody! It’s just not worth the risk. It doesn’t matter if they have “experience”-how would you know if you don’t know them?! And maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t let a young teen watch my babies alone. Time alone with your husband Is important. Just find an adult whom you know to watch your kids! :)
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I guess I have to add my voice to this discussion. My daughters have done a lot of babysitting for Christian and non-christian people recently. I am sorry to say that they have told me that the non-christian people are far more generous in pay and far less demanding. They have worked for moms in our church who are making between 30.00-50.00 per hour (no joke!)
And they are asked to watch 3 kids…make lunch…mop floors…do laundry… pull weeds…paint bathroom walls!!!, and I don’t know what all—for way less than minimum wage! I suppose they should have made it very clear what they expected in pay and responsibilities, but it was rather hard for them to tell our own church people a set amount….besides—they never told our non-christian neighbors either. They simply knew what was appropriate and paid the girls a decent amount with-out even asking their rate.
Some of these rates mentioned here seem exhorbitant, and I wouldn’t even expect a teen to get that much, but to pay way less than the going rate for your area and pile on all kinds of responsibilities just because the kid is a member of your church is unacceptable.
Thanks for letting me unload.
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Just popping in to say I’ve linked up your article to a meetup.com mom’s group I’m in. :)
This topic continues to be relevant in my life and I’m so glad to have you as a resource!
~Allie
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