childcare vs cleaning

[doody]

Why is it that people pay/ charge more for cleaners than for childcare?

I have recently seen a cleaner ad on this site for ?10 an hour. You would never get/ pay that for babysitting or child minding.

Something wrong here, surely? I mean, what's more important, your child or a clean house?

[candj]

But you would pay ?10 for a nanny. Perhaps babysitters don't charge as much because during their job the children are sleeping most of the time. Not sure how childminders work so can't comment on that.

Just to add, you would pay ?10 plus for a nanny including tax and NI.

[Saffron]

Might depend on how much work your cleaner or babysitter does. Looking after Little Saff for a couple hours is pretty easy, and I wouldn't expect the sitter to do any particular cleaning. A couple of hours of cleaning our house is REALLY hard work.

[doody]

The babysitters my friends use look after the children daytime, not just when they are asleep. And they get paid between ?6-?8 tops. A childminder who advertises on this site asks ?8 per child. Can't comment on how much a nanny's salary breaks down per hour. It's not just about how hard work the little ones are, but the immense responsibility it is to safeguard children. I'm just surprised that it has always seemed to be that cleaners get paid more for a less important job, and that parents are prepared to do so!

[ClareC]

Most people only employ a cleaner for a few hours a week, the cleaner presumably ends up with a lot of the working week effectively unpaid as travelling from job to job. Nanny's are a lot more expensive given the tax, NI, employment rights etc and tend to be full time or at least part time but with full days. Nanny's do get paid far better than cleaners.

What is the point you are trying to make?

[doody]

Thought the point was clear- that it seems strange to pay a cleaner more than someone who looks after your child- that's it!

[candj]

I've never employed a babysitter to look after my children during the daytime as I've always employed a nanny - full time and her salary was more than ?10/hr when you calculate tax and NI. A baby sitter I would have thought only worked ad hoc in the evenings when parents were out and a babysitter could be anyone looking after children even a teenager, friend, neighbour or whoever whereas a nanny has a qualifications/degrees in childcare/first aid/CRB, etc and is an actual employee where tax and NI must be paid by the employer (ie, the family).

Incidentally, I pay my housekeeper 10/hr as well and her job is just as important in our household but perhaps without the responsibility of small children.

[denny]

when i do after school work i get paid more per hour than if i was working the whole day as the hours are quite short. Sometimes people only have a cleaner for 2 or 3 hours and they can probably only fit in 2 jobs a day unless the houses are especially close together. I think the wage reflects these things rather than the importance of the job.

[ladywotlunches]

I'm sure we would all love to be able to pay carers more, but its down to the number of hours required I think. And as we have to pay these costs from our Taxed salaries, and in the case of Nannies add their Tax/NI on top, anything more than ?8/10 per hour net is just not workable for most.

Its the government's fault - they should allow all childcare workers to work tax free! :)

[ClareC]

doody Wrote:

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> Thought the point was clear- that it seems strange

> to pay a cleaner more than someone who looks after

> your child- that's it!

Yes, I get that! Is the point that cleaners should be paid less or nanny's more. Personally I don't think the jobs are at all comparable and both should be paid fair market rate as in any job!

[SFennell]

I think a vital point is being missed here: If you are willing to take on taking care of children for a living, in order for it to be sustainable, you surely would look after more than one child, thus bringing the hourly rate up proportionally!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

This resonates with me. I've dog-walked and child-cared (three under 7s) for the same family. I earned more dog-walking which seemed really bonkers.

[reneet]

Its what one asks for I can get a good baby sitter (NOT NANNY) for 6 pounds but a cleaner will never accept that, not a good cleaner anyway. I always ask my baby sitters how much they charge and pay them the amount same to the cleaner, so its a matter of what the market rate is. If a whole load of cleaners suddenly turned up and started charging 6 an hour and they were trustworthy and good then that would become the going rate.

[doody]

@Denny- that's an interesting aspect I hadn't thought of.

@Lady- totally agree.. even if you are being tongue-in-cheek! it would help alleviate the difficulties of affording childcare.

It is quite difficult for child carers to juggle times between several families, tho, unless they are minding from their own home. The point about the market rate is true- unless people are fair like reneet is, you won't get more than the price you value your services at yourself.

[kapaxiana]

I would like to add if I may that it goes with the area as well. I am a teacher and do occasional babysitting , I get paid ?10/hr for evening or daytime which is pretty much the going rate around Clapham where I work.

I agree that it depends who you are using as a babysitter, if someone qualified like a professional nanny/teacher the going rate is pretty much ?10/hr. You can find babysitters for less but these will be aupairs ( some with only basic English), teenagers in the neighborhood etc.. there are pretty competent aupairs/youngsters out there but it is a risk you have to decide whether you are prepared to pay.

Just a little story, when I moved to Uk I was an aupair and had a vast list of families for whom I babysat for. Back then I use to get ?5/hr. I had so many families asking me to babysit that sometimes I had to recommend friends and other aupairs I knew. I once recommended a friend who was older than me, gone to uni and I believed to be very responsible. To cut story short, it was day time babysitting an the mum was supposed to be back by 2pm, she was late and instead of calling the mum, my friend left the 1 y.o boy sleeping in his cot and left because once I had told her that most of the times I didn't even see mum but dad instead and my friend understood (her English wasn't that great) that if i didn't see the mum that meant i left before she arrived. Luckily as my friend walked out the mum was just arriving but imagine if something had happened and for whatever reason the mum didn't get home so soon... just a little food for thought because sometimes you get what you pay for.

Now I do agree that cleaners work hard and ?10/hr is fair enough especially as they normally do 2 to 3 hours per job as many have mentioned. Cleaners normally do it for a living whilst babysitters do it for some extra pocket money.

Childminders charge less because they normally look after many children at a time and most have their own child/children with them as well. They generally work from home and have no travel expenses etc. They play their day as they please being able to do some of their house chores as well i.e when children as having a nap.

So all together very different jobs and in no means can be compared.

[reneet]

I think doddy misunderstood me, I mean I pay each what they ask for, I am usually not fair to anyone but myself :).

I am a little confused here, what do people mean by baby sitting? I generally use a baby sitter in the evening if Mr. R and I are doing something, and usually little R is asleep, if I need to leave her for a whole day or part of the day when she is fully awake, I rely on professionals (never needed one before), responsible relatives/friends whom she knows very well and have spent time with her and know what my parenting style (if I have any) is. Usually use a sitter for 3hrs max any longer I get a friend/relative to spend the night or i take her to a friend/relative and she spends the night.

Edited to say: I have used a baby sitter for both baby sitting and cleaning and she charged me more for cleaning than she did for baby sitting.

[zeban]

Cleaning is much harder than babyitting a sleeping child. I've done lots of babysitting in the past as a teen. Was paid around ?5 per hour for it-was awhile ago now though! I'd say probably around ?7 per hour sounds about right. And ?10 per hour for cleaning sounds about right.

Nannys/childminders are different to babysitters.

[womanofdulwich]

best one is a babysitter who will do your ironing at the same time..........

[zeban]

womanofdulwich Wrote:

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> best one is a babysitter who will do your ironing

> at the same time..........

Then you should definitely be paying them ?10 per hour!

[hilili]

A clean house :)

[ladywotlunches]

Woman of Dulwich, where do you find such a creature? I only know of one babysitter/ironer, which is my mother in law. And we don't benefit from her services because she lives in Suffolk. My sis-in-law takes full advantage of this free service to her though and still moans she doesn't get out enough (2-3 times per WEEK!!!). Some people just don't know when they have it good..:)

[kapaxiana]

womanofdulwich Wrote:

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> best one is a babysitter who will do your ironing

> at the same time..........

I am sorry but I will have to disagree, no offence meant but to ME I would find that abusive unless you do pay the babysitter ?10/hr.

Most mums I have met don't agree on paying more than ?7 to their babysitters because it is sitting and watching tv which it's fair enough however that changes once you ask them to do anything else.

I consider babysitting when you only need short hours occasionally and the babysitter is an aupair or teenager for example.

[njc97]

The /hour rate is what the market can bear, not what we think they are worth. And being a nanny is much more pleasant than being a cleaner.

As a comparison, we all judge our kids worth a lot more than our banks, yet you try to find a banker wiling to work for ?10 an hour.....

[womanofdulwich]

Hah I was so lucky I had a babysitter/nanny who offered to do the ironing for a bit extra-she was an older woman who liked to do things. it was the first time I had left my baby who was 4 months old.However I still think if I had a babysitter and knew they were in for an easy night of watching tv I would offer them a bit more for doing a pile of ironing at the same time. Of course if they had to make supper and put 2 toddlers to bath/ bed I would not ask-thats enough!

[zeban]

Jeez woman of dulwich, what an attitude! So what if it's an 'easy night watching TV', they are still watching your child and doing you a favour! I personally would prefer it if it was an easy night for the babysitter who would most probably be a teen trying to get a little pocket money. They've got their whole lives ahead of them to be exploited by employers! Are you trying to prove a point or something? because if so you need to pick your battles.