Cost of a Live-in Nanny in Canton, MI? (Detroit: apartment, health insurance)

[WestleySpitz]

Hello,

Anyone had experience with live-in Nanny in the greater Detroit Area? How much is a typical price day? per week? per month? We are expecting this July, and probably will need some one part-time or full time by September. Any local job market that I should explore?

[zthatzmanz28]

Wouldn't a full time live in be paid around $2500-$3000 a month with R&B? I did a similiar gig part time in 1995 and was paid $1250 a month including R&B for part-time (5 pm - 7 am).

[WestleySpitz]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

Wouldn't a full time live in be paid around $2500-$3000 a month with R&B? I did a similiar gig part time in 1995 and was paid $1250 a month including R&B for part-time (5 pm - 7 am).

wow, if it cost that much, it's better off one of us quitting our job.

[MIEng]

I don't know what is the difference between a live in nanny and an au pair, but my manager had an au pair when his kids were younger. Between he and his wife ( also a manager) they make around 300k or more in income. This type of service is very expensive, specially if you go with an agency.

[Retroit]

Day care wouldn't work? I know in other parts of the country, Mexicans often do this type of work (often illegally). Not sure about the Detroit area. Maybe Mexicantown?

[Coldjensens]

We did this when we lived in California. It was a bit trying. We did not pay that much (I think $450 per week and later, I think we found some health insurance for them). Here are some things that we discovered:

It is hard to find someone to stay for long. Many younger gals are looking for something to do for a while, but taking care of your kids and house is not a lifetime career goal for them. Thus, we had several good nannies who stayed for a short time and then went back to college (or firmeans school, or whatever). Room and board plus $450 per week seems pretty good, but they are not going to get ahead doing this. They are not going to get any substantial promotions or raises.

It is impossible to find out whether someone will be a good nanny. You can take precautions, but it is still hit and miss. We hired one older gal (later 40s I think) She was a grandmother. She had good references and we went and talked with them. They loved her and wanted to take her with them to Coloado when they moved but she would not move. We had an FBI background check done on her and it came back fine. We also interveiwed a prior family who had hired her. She seemed nice and responsible so we hired her.

She did a decent job for a week, but she did not want to do any housework when the kids were sleeping. We gave her a bassinet and a lot of decent baby clothes and toys for her granddaughter that our kids had just outgrown. On Friday of her first week, she asked to borrow my wife's car to run up to the market to get some supplies. We told her that was fine. At 11 p.m. she still was not back so we went to bed. By saturday afternoon we called the police and reported her and the car missing. Sunday, we were getting really concerned. We called a former nanny who lived down the street (she went back to college) and she agreed to come Monday and watch the kids.

Monday morning I got a call from the former nanny. She said that the new nanny had returned and was apparently drunk. The former nanny was hiding in the laundry room with the babies and asked me to come home. I could not come home, but my wife did. Former nanny was really really drunk and crying. My wife told her to pack up her stuff and leave. She headed down the hallway, but missed the hallway and slammed head first into the wall. Blood everywhere.

Eventually she got cleaned up, packed up and out.

Three days later I tried to buy some gas and my ATM card was rejected. That was odd. We looked into it and found several hundred dollars worth of checks that we could not remember writing. We ordered copies of the checks.

The checks were made out to cash, and had my name on the signature line, but it was not my signature. We reported this to the bank. Eventually the bank told us that the money had been deposited into drunk nanny's account. Drunk nanny tried to claim that it was the former nanny who did it. (no explanation why former nanny would deposit money into drunk nanny's account).

We got the police to investigate drunk nanny. It truned out that the name and scoial security number that she gave us was clean. The FBI did not mess up. However by running the fingerprints that we required, they found two other names and social securitiy numbers for drunk nanny. The other identiies had a record for past fraud (bad checks etc) as well as an utstanding warrant for some minor conviction or failure to show at court.

The bank returned our money because they messed up by not checking the signature. However they would not prosecute drunk nanny. It was not enough money to be worthwhile. Police were not intersted in prosecuting drunk nanny for stealing the car since she initially had permission, however they did arrest her for the past warrant. She basically got a slap on the hand and was released.

Drunk nanny then called my wife several times over the two weeks after she was released. She claimed that we ruined her life and she was going to sue us. I called her and said that if we ever heard from or saw her again, we would get an injunction. Never heard from her again.

That was the wosrt story of about four or five nannies. Some of them we really loved (like the girl who moved down the street when she went back to college and the girl who quit to go to fireman school). Some of them were basically ok, but a bit imature.

Several older women that we interviewed had serious health problems. Some could not even pick the babies up if they were crying. One was living at a house as a nanny, but the parents kept leaving the country for extended periods and left no money or food in the house. Lots of bizzarre stories. We had to interview a lot of people each time we hired a new nanny.

My wife finally became frustrated hearing complaints about getting paid to do what my wife was dying to do (stay home and care for the kids). She finally quit her job and became the nanny. Wife was the best nanny we ever had by a long shot. It was financially difficult, but we eventually adjusted. It was not that big of a difference by the time we deducted nanny costs, dry cleaning, food, gas, etc from wife's pay. However the killer was the health insurance. My insurance was too expensive for family coverage. Wife's company offered family coverage at no cost.

I cannot imagine, even with room and board that you will get anyone for less than $2000 per month. Even that is incredibly low, espeially now, and you will not get good candidates. A couple of things to keep in mind:

You have to withhold taxes and pay the employers share of social security, or hire through a company that takes care of that and you just contract with the company so that the nanny is not your employee. Some nannys form their own company that pays them and you contract with them directly. Ask you accountant whether this is valid. I have no idea.

You should have workers compensation insurance, or the service that provides the Nanny should have it.

You should provide health insurance if you can (may be mandatory now, not sure).

You can, or at least used to be able to pay for child care with pre-tax dollars. That helps a lot.

Most Nannies were willing to work outside their requried hours (i.e. weekends and nights), but you have to pay them extra. It is nice to always have a trusted babysitter, but can get expensive.

If you provide a car, be certain that she is covered on your insurance.

Do not forget to figure out what you will do when she takes a vacation and when you go on vacation.

Always have a back up/alternate to your nanny. You do not want to be left with no child care if your nanny is sick, quits, or steals your car and then shows up drunk after forging your name on some checks.


Good luck.

[Coldjensens]

Difference btween live in nanny and au pair is about $150 a week. Otherwise they are the same.


The added cost is for the same reason that you pay more at a "Service Centre" than you do at a Gas station.

[zthatzmanz28]

We did not pay that much

Doesn't $450 a week plus insurance come to a bit over $2000 a month>??

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

We did not pay that much

Doesn't $450 a week plus insurance come to a bit over $2000 a month>??

YEs.

That is not that much. It is at the low end. We did not provide insurance at first. Eventually we found some for something under $200 per month so we got it for whomever was the nanny at the time.

We needed someone for about ten hours a day during the week it was a few minutes over ten hours but they were able to sleep while the babies slept, or talk on the phone etc. The pay came out to around $7.50 per hour which was somewhat below minmum wage then and there (I think), but then you factor in Room and Board and we guessed that we were arguably doubling the salary. Room and board really cost us nothing. We had extra rooms and she ate with us and we always had leftover food anyway, so there was no real added cost. (Except the one gal from Sierra Leone who wanted Ox Tail soup - we had to buy Ox Tail specially, we did not normally eat Ox Tail).

Still, we were at the low end. Not the bottom, but closer to the bottom than to the middle. At the other end, we interviewed a gal who was previously paid $6000 per month. Supplied with her own car, a seperate apartment that included the services of a maid and a cook, full pool access for her and her friends, and the kids were in school, so she did not have to work during they day and could take classes at college.

I think that "normal" is somewhere in between those two figures. $3000 per month may be more typical.

Really, if you think about it $450 a week is alsmost $24,000 a year. Plus room and board. That is pretty good for a job that does not require education, just some experience.

Even at $450 a week, we figured that my wife was bringing home less than $500 per month after expenses. Day care was not much cheaper if at all.

That was why is was practical for her to quit working and stay home to care for the kidlets. .

[WestleySpitz]

It does seem like the biggest challenge is to spot a "good" nanny, which is near impossible to do...I'm not even sure of what to do at this point. I much rather go through an agency if I can find trust in them.