Going rate for Babysitter?

[Draug]

What is the appropriate hourly wage to pay a babysitter these days? We have no idea what is fair these days because we always have had Grandma come for us.

Tonight, we have two girls (friends of the family), aged 15 and 16, coming tonight to babysit our two children. We have a 4 year old daughter and 20 month old son. We'll be gone from about 6 to 10pm.

What should we pay them?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Draug

What should we pay them?

That depends whether or not you are employed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

[Boblobla]

[kirant]

I had always been given something (neighbors on last second things) along the lines of (for one person):
- $5-10/(hour) + $2/(extra kid/hour)

I have not clue what it'd be for two people though...

[Prototype]

I always thought $20 a night was fair. I don't know what the going rate is, but that's what I expected when I was like 12.

[DementedReality]

well ... people will pay $75 per hour to have their car fixed .... they will pay how much to have their dog beautified, but holy smokes ask them to pay a rate equivelent to the requirements of ensuring the safety of a baby and child and well, $20 should be enough for the night!

i have kids, so i speak from experiance. if the person charged with looking after my kids will do it for $20 for the night, frankly id rather just not go out.

my preference is to have them go over to other parents houses who we know and trust and then return the favour for them. i havent ever paid for a baby sitter because i just wouldnt trust my kids with teenagers.

but thats me, to each his own ...

[photon]

$20 a night might be a little light nowadays.

We usually pay the girl that comes over $30-40 for the night depending on how long we're out and how much of that he's awake, though we've heard through the grape vine that she really likes working for us because we pay really well lol, so I'm probably leaving money on the table. But who cares, she does a good job, my kid likes her, she lives close by, and an extra $10 or $20 isn't going to break me.

[d_phaneuf]

My younger sister does it quite often and if its for 4 hours I think she usually gets 30$

if its 2 of them I would give them both 25$

[wooohooo]

Last year this family friend asked me to baby sit his 4 year old boy. He paid for $50 for about 4 hours... and I thought that was not enough. Hell, $100 bucks would not even be enough. But for any normal kid that can handle a screaming kid who bangs pots and kicks and screams... and has to watch the same creepy ytv show over and over again, then I think $40 is good.

[Yeah_Baby]

It only took till post #2. Impressive.

[C-Life]

Depends on how well behaved the kids are. $5-$10 an hour for a well behave child. $20-$30 an hour for a hell raiser. You hired 2 babysitters so you pay double.

[alltherage]

Personally I would say $30 for the first 2 hours and an extra $10 every additional hour. They can split it among themselves.

[Barnes]

I saw on TV that you can pay them in gum.

[PYroMaNiaC]

My daughter babysits toddlers on Thursdays from 7pm to around 10pm. She gets $7.00/hour. That seems fair because the kids are good, go to bed without a hassle and she does general tidying up. They also do all the driving which for us is good because we live in the middle of nowhere.

[Azure]

Pay them fairly and they'll do a better job.

[Dorkmaster]

Oops! Wrong thread!

[V]

We don't usually go out until about 8:00 and all the kids are already in bed when the babysitter gets there. She more or less has to sit there and take care of things if anything happens, and of course nothing does. We pay 30-40 bucks for a 4 hour night, depending on what's in my wife's purse at the time.

[DownhillGoat]

Min wage is usually a good starting point. I think it's 8.80, so $8-9 an hour would be fair, dependent on how easy/tough the kids are to look after, special needs, etc.

Originally Posted by Reaper

That depends whether or not you are employed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Boo.

Just don't go trying to recover the Gummy de Milo that fell in the seat cushion.

[Starfishy]

We pay $40 bucks. Two kids. But seeing as two girls are coming... I dunno... maybe $50?

[bcb]

If you're spending the evening at the casino, I hear it's cool these days to just lock the kids in the car.