How Much Do You Pay Your Helper?

[permanentvacation]

I have been operating with 4 kids and just got a new child that may or may not work out.

With the 4 kids, I make $7.39/hour. With the 5 kids, I make 9.13/hour. My helper recently told me that she wants to go from making $6/hour to $8/hour. How can I possibly justify paying her $8/hour if I only make $7.39/hour!?!?! I pay her cash under the table which means that I am claiming her income on my taxes and paying her taxes!

So, I was wondering what portion of the hourly rate that you make is it that you pay your helper? Do you pay a different rate if you are there with your helper than you pay if you leave your helper there by themselves?

[sahm2three]

My helper gets paid for 2 kids a week. She works between 30 and 40 hours.

[caring4kidsinSD]

Why do you need a helper for 4 kids?

[Michael]

http://daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=assistant+rates

[PolkaTots]

If you agree to it, just tell her it will no longer be under the table and she will be responsible for her own taxes so you don't have to absorb that charge.

Originally Posted by sahm2three

My helper gets paid for 2 kids a week. She works between 30 and 40 hours.

I'm wondering the same thing? Most people can have (depending on the state) between 6-12 kids on their own. Why an assistant with 4?

[permanentvacation]

I really have never NEEDED a helper. It is more for convience for my parents and myself. I almost NEVER close my daycare. I used to do EVERYTHING by myself - to the point that I actually took 8 daycare kids with me EVERY month to the OBGYN when I was pregnant!!! A nurse looked after them in the other room while I was being examined. After giving birth, they made my newborn and I stay in the hospital for one day. The very next morning, I was home and up at 5:30am doing daycare with 7 daycare kids and my newborn by myself. So, I technically do not NEED help, it's just convenient.

By having a helper - even with only a couple of kids, I never have to close in order to go to a doctor or dentist, don't have to try to figure out how to get to the school if my daughter gets sent home early for being sick. With just a couple of kids, yes, I could put them in the car and take them with me if I need to go somewhere. Which is what I used to do. But I'm getting older - I'd rather not load and unload kids and drag them with me to a doctor's appointment anymore! Also, that's not what the parents want their kids doing with their day. So, by having a helper, it's convient for my parents to know that I will never call them and leave them hanging for daycare and for myself in case I need to leave work during the day.

For the majority of the time, I am here with my helper. I do the majority of the work. There are times when I leave the home and she does everything herself though. But I figured out her rate of pay by figuring out how much my daughter made for take home pay at minimum wage. Since I am paying my helper's taxes, I do not need to pay her a gross pay, just what she would actually receive as take home pay. That's how I looked at it. But now she's asking for $8/hour which would be somewhere between $9 and $10/hour once you add in the taxes that I will be paying for her. I think that's ubsurd for the amount of work that she does.

She doesn't want to have to claim her income on taxes and I really would rather not go through all the hassle of it either. But I don't think I should pay her too much more than I already am.

So, I was asking what you guys typically pay your helpers.

Originally Posted by permanentvacation

I really have never NEEDED a helper. It is more for convience for my parents and myself. I almost NEVER close my daycare. I used to do EVERYTHING by myself - to the point that I actually took 8 daycare kids with me EVERY month to the OBGYN when I was pregnant!!! A nurse looked after them in the other room while I was being examined. After giving birth, they made my newborn and I stay in the hospital for one day. The very next morning, I was home and up at 5:30am doing daycare with 7 daycare kids and my newborn by myself. So, I technically do not NEED help, it's just convenient.

By having a helper - even with only a couple of kids, I never have to close in order to go to a doctor or dentist, don't have to try to figure out how to get to the school if my daughter gets sent home early for being sick. With just a couple of kids, yes, I could put them in the car and take them with me if I need to go somewhere. Which is what I used to do. But I'm getting older - I'd rather not load and unload kids and drag them with me to a doctor's appointment anymore! Also, that's not what the parents want their kids doing with their day. So, by having a helper, it's convient for my parents to know that I will never call them and leave them hanging for daycare and for myself in case I need to leave work during the day.

For the majority of the time, I am here with my helper. I do the majority of the work. There are times when I leave the home and she does everything herself though. But I figured out her rate of pay by figuring out how much my daughter made for take home pay at minimum wage. Since I am paying my helper's taxes, I do not need to pay her a gross pay, just what she would actually receive as take home pay. That's how I looked at it. But now she's asking for $8/hour which would be somewhere between $9 and $10/hour once you add in the taxes that I will be paying for her. I think that's ubsurd for the amount of work that she does.

She doesn't want to have to claim her income on taxes and I really would rather not go through all the hassle of it either. But I don't think I should pay her too much more than I already am.

So, I was asking what you guys typically pay your helpers.

I pay my assistant $10/hour but she earns every penny. Maybe you could increase her pay but only have her there either when you are not or just during the busy times.I can't imagine paying someone during nap time(unless they are cleaning) or any other time it's not busy.Just seems like a waste of money

[MN Day Mom]

How many hours do you have her work each week? Is she there all day every day?? Or only as needed??

[wdmmom]

Pay depends on experience and if they're willing to work a split shift. I pay anywhere from $7.25 to start for inexperienced but I'd pay as much as $10 for someone qualified, that has the experience, and has the credentials.

[lilrugrats]

You said you do most of the work she is just a helper? then I would pay $6 cash an hour. If need be can you find a stay at home mom to get her stuff on file, and call her when needed?

[permanentvacation]

When I had a full load of kids, she was here every day 9-12. That's when I do the main preschool activities and lunch. So she would help with those or I would leave and go to an appointment or run errands and she would do work by herself. Now, since I don't have many kids, she has been 'on call'. She really doesn't want a full time or even a set part-time job. She just wants to make a little spending money. But I want to keep her here often enough so she won't go looking for another job somewhere else and then not be able to work for me. So, even when I don't need her at all, I try to have her here sometime throughout each week. I'd say maybe at least 2 days/week for 3 hours each day. So at $6/hour for 6 hours of work when I don't need her at all, she makes $36 that week. It's not much, just enough to give her gas money or so she can give her daughter money to go to the movies or wherever that weekend. If I do have things that I would like to do or need to do, though, she will work whenever I need her to. Some days she's worked 8:30 - 5:30, others she'll work 9-11 then come back and work 3-5:30. Just whenever I ask her to be here. Since I really don't need her here, and since she doesn't really want a 'job', we just work her days and hours around when she would like to come to work and when it would be more helpful to me to have her here. If she wants to sleep in, she'll let me know that she doesn't want to work mornings for a few days. If her son is coming for dinner one day that week, she'll tell me she doesn't want to work in the afternoon/evening that day. So, her days/hours are extremely flexible. I did like it when she worked every day 9-12. But then some random afternoon, my daughter would need to be picked up from school or my daughter would need a ride somewhere after school, or I couldn't make a doctor/dentist appointment during 9-12 and had to have my helper her on random afternoons too. So, we just work her days/hours out so we both can make income and do what we need to do in our personal lives.

[permanentvacation]

She has never done daycare before. When she started, she didn't have any classes, was not CPR/1st Aid certified or anything. She has taken a few classes and has become CPR/1st Aid certified. I have paid for all of her classes. She does like to teach the children, plays alot of games, puzzles, and activities, with them. She treats them wonderfully and the kids all love her. However, after a year or so of her working here, I feel like I'm still training her when it comes to ligistics. For example, she will tell the children to clean up and get them ready to eat lunch. They will do so and then sit down ready to eat. But she never prepared lunch yet! So I am still telling her that she needs to prepare their lunch and have their plates ready before telling them to get ready for lunch! Things like that. When getting the children ready for nap, she still often forgets to put a pull-up on a child that is potty-trained and wears underwear while awake but pees herself while sleeping. So if I'm not home when she's begining naptime, then I come home after the kids are laying down, I sometimes don't think to check if she's put a pull-up on the child. She's been told for a year or so to do this! But some days she forgets and the child wakes up full of pee! She used to try to tend to my house for me during nap time. She has put dirty dishes from the dishwasher away in the cabinets - she thought they were clean! Things like that where she's trying to help around the house but really just makes things worse. I finally got her to stop doing household things and just focus on the daycare children. But she still doesn't get the details right. But she is nice with them, plays with them, teaches them, and will work whenever needed. So, since I have to go behind her and tend to the details or clean up messes because she forgot the details, I don't see how/why I would increase her pay. I used to fuss with her about these things but I found out that she would go home and be all upset and cry about me fussing with her. So I just don't mention any of them anymore and I just fix things that she missed. I really appreaciate the fact that she will work whenever I ask her to and don't want to and she treats the children so well, that I don't want to lose her. Also, since I do this out of my house, I really have to be able to trust anyone that works for me to know that they won't steal anything from my home or bring trouble here. So, I want her to keep working here, but I really can't justify paying her much more than what she would make at min. wage. Which is around $6/hour take home which is what I already pay her.

But, since she fussed about her rate of pay, I started wondering what other home daycare providers pay their helpers to see if I am really paying too little.

[permanentvacation]

I've asked some of my neighbors if they would like to work here. None of the stay at home moms want to do this. I had young woman working here for a short time, but she really needed a full-time paying job and left to go to a regular job. Around here, it seems like people either don't want any income or need $400/week. The helper I have is the only person that I asked who just wants to make some spending money and is willing to work at a home daycare on ocassion as needed.

I haven't advertised for an employee - I really don't want a random stranger in my home especially when I'm not home and being responsible for the well-being of my daycare kids. I just don't feel comfortable hiring someone I don't know.

When paying a person in cash the one who is really saving is the employer. With unemployment insurance, Workman's comp, and the portion of of S.S the employer pays what the employer pays out of pocket almost double the amount of the employees hourly rate or salary. If you paid your employee minimum wage and took out withholding taxes and paid the other taxes you would be looking at almost $15. With your employee working so little she would more than likely get most of her withholding taxes(besides her 7.5% of S.S) back. You based this off of your dependent daughters taxes. Your daughter can't even claim herself. Depending on what her spouse makes they may be loosing on on tax credits by her being paid in cash.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I am a small center. $10 an hour.

[DCMom]

$10/hr

My assistant is my daughter ~ when she started, she was 16 and made $6.50/hr in cash and only worked before/after and school off days. She is 19 now and worked up to $10/hr. She works M-W-F and is awesome with the kids. She is worth every penny I pay her.

I have 8-10 kids ranging from 8 months to 5 years everyday.