A nanny who puts you and your family at ease, works well within your family, and generally feels like a family member to you is one who you hope will stay with your family long term!

You know your nanny is more than just your employee, but at the same time, you do have to treat your nanny professionally. They need to know that you respect their work, trust their choices, and are grateful for the work that they do for your family. To show that you honor their work, it is customary to raise your nanny’s salary during their time with your family.

So, what considerations should you know when raising your nanny’s salary? Use our handy list below!

1. Consider Expectations

The biggest question for families who have a nanny that they love working with is probably how to keep them with your family for as long as possible! How do you do this and make sure they are happy in their position?

To answer this question, consider your nanny’s expectations, or the expectations of any reliable, hardworking employee. When you do your job well, you expect to be given more trust and more responsibility, which should also translate to higher compensation.

At the very least, you should expect to raise your nanny’s salary every year to account for changes in the cost of living and any increased responsibilities and duties your nanny may have taken on. Merit-based raises are typically a 0-3% but can vary and may be more in some cases. They should be considered on top of a cost of living or inflation-based increase.

Altogether, cost of living increases typically account for anywhere between a 3% to 6% raise per year depending on where you live, but you can check the Consumer Price Index for an updated report. A great time to evaluate your nanny’s work over the year and to consider raises is during their annual performance review on the anniversary of their start date; however, your nanny may ask for a raise outside of their annual review period. If they do, that’s a sign you may be underpaying them and they feel taken advantage of.

2. You’ve Increased Responsibilities and Duties

When your nanny began working with your family, there should have been a work agreement in place that listed the responsibilities and duties expected of your nanny.

Over the year, as you became more comfortable with your nanny, did your nanny take on even more responsibilities inside your home? Does your nanny also do household work that is beyond what you first agreed on when they were hired? Have you added cooking, cleaning, pet care, traveling, driving, or related duties to their workload?

If so, your nanny deserves a raise!

3. You’ve Added More Children

Another consideration for raising your nanny’s salary is how many children are in their care now versus when they began. Maybe since your nanny started working with your family, you’ve had a baby or adopted a child and your nanny now has more children to take care of. This added responsibility to your nanny means they are working even harder to help support your family and should receive a fair adjustment, usually anywhere from $2-$5 an hour increase in pay.

4. Your Nanny Earns Related Certifications

When your nanny shows professionalism and care for their work by earning any additional child-based training or certifications, it is a good practice to reward their increased knowledge with an increase in pay as well. Take this into consideration when deciding to raise your nanny’s salary!

5. The Cost of Turnover

There’s nothing worse than finding a great nanny whom your family and children love and then making them feel that they are undervalued by underpaying them or not allowing for appropriate salary increases when they are deserved.

Retaining a quality nanny saves you time with having to train a new nanny, and more importantly, you can rest assured that your family and home are in the best hands! It’s important to make sure your nanny feels appreciated by you so that they will stay with you long term.

Need more advice on the best practices to find quality nanny candidates and retain them long term? Consider working with us at Preferred Childcare to help you find the best nanny possible for your family!