{"id":118,"date":"2016-04-26T23:38:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T23:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paychecknanny.com\/blog\/?p=118"},"modified":"2024-04-01T17:05:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T17:05:44","slug":"pay-nanny-hourly-salary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paychecknanny.com\/blog\/pay-nanny-hourly-salary\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying your nanny hourly vs salary – Mistakes you don’t want to make"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hourly or\u00a0Salary – Which is better?<\/h2>\n

The short answer is hourly. \u00a0Note that you can set the the hourly pay rate so it still works\u00a0like a salary, but we will get to that in a bit.<\/p>\n

Why pay hourly?<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. The legal aspect<\/strong>: Paying hourly is critical to properly calculating overtime pay. \u00a0By federal law (Fair Labor Standards Act<\/a>), your nanny\u00a0must be paid overtime, at a rate of at least 1.5 times her regular rate,\u00a0for any hours worked over 40 in a 7 day work week. \u00a0One exception is for\u00a0live-in nannies – although some\u00a0states do have additional\u00a0laws\u00a0making overtime pay required for\u00a0live-in nannies as well.<\/li>\n
  2. The nanny relationship aspect<\/strong>: If you agree with your nanny to a certain fixed weekly rate, this usually assumes some certain number of hours worked per week. \u00a0But what happens when you need your nanny for extra hours some weeks? \u00a0Many salaried nannies report that they frequently\u00a0end up working more than the originally planned hours, and then feel taken advantage of when they still get the same fixed weekly rate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you don’t consider these scenarios up-front, it can lead to some messy situations.<\/p>\n

    Guaranteed pay option<\/h2>\n

    One optional variation is to pay hourly but at the same time guarantee your nanny that she will be paid for a certain number of hours per week, regardless of whether she is scheduled\u00a0for the full number of hours. \u00a0The overtime rate of 1.5 times the regular rate would still apply for time over 40 hours.<\/p>\n

    This perk is very appealing to potential nannies, so can\u00a0help you to get a higher quality candidate.<\/p>\n

    How to calculate\u00a0hourly pay from salary<\/h2>\n

    If you do want to think in terms of weekly fixed salary, you can do some calculations to\u00a0convert this to an hourly rate, and still keep yourself legal from an overtime perspective.<\/p>\n

    Plug in the\u00a0hours and weekly salary\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0calculator below to figure out the effective pay rate and overtime rate for your situation.<\/p>\n