January 2002
Success at a Price - The Professional Nanny/Nannytax survey of UK nanny wages
Our annual survey shows that for the third year in a row, average earnings for both daily and live-in nannies in different parts of the UK have risen substantially, at well above the rate of inflation. Live-in nannies have seen the largest rises this year, ranging from 14 per cent in both Inner and outer London to an even greater 17.5 per cent in the countryside.
Daily nannies who have enjoyed double digit percentage increases over the past two years have seen slightly smaller increases, ranging from 8.5 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in inner and outer London and the Horne Counties to a smaller 4.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent in other cities and the countryside respectively. These latter two categories of nannies enjoyed the highest wage rises in the previous year.
A MIXED BLESSING
While at face value these increased pay levels may look like further cause for celebration for UK nannies, they hide a very different story which should give nannies everywhere pause for thought. The fact IS that continued steep rises in nannies' pay are contributing to a sharp decline in the number of full-time sole-charge nanny jobs available.
As an example of this, a working mother employing a daily nanny in central London at the current average net salary of £344 per week would have to herself earn a gross wage of £35,500 simply to cover the cost of her nanny's gross salary plus her employer's National Insurance Contribution. Even in other UK cities, where the average wage for a daily nanny is £236 a week, a working mother would have to earn just under £18,000 gross a year to cover this.
At these current wage levels the cost of employing a full-time nanny is becoming increasingly prohibitive to an ever larger number of parents, with the consequence that only a smaller number of high-earning families can afford to employ a qualified or experienced full-time nanny. For many middle-income families, especially those with only one child, employing a full-time nanny is no longer an affordable childcare option.
RISE OF THE PART-TIMER
Not surprisingly, many of the nanny agencies who participated in the survey reported a large increase in the demand for part-time nanny positions and nanny shares. As many as half of the jobs that some agencies are being asked to fill are now part-time. While the growing demand for part-time nannies may undoubtedly reflect other factors, such as the increased number of both mothers and fathers working at least part of the time from home and other parental attempts to find a better work/life balance, there is no doubt that the cost of employing a nanny is also a major influence on this trend.
Of course this does not mean nannies are not worth every penny they are paid. B with no tax relief available for UK parents employing a nanny, paying a decent wage has now become a very expensive option.
The survey also makes clear that there is more than one type of part-time nanny in demand. Where parents might require a nanny two or three days a week, parents who don't work from home and who use nurseries or have school-age children require a different kind of flexible 'wraparound' childcare for their children both before and after school. The long hours that many parents work in their careers means that they now need a combination of childcare options rather than just the one.
Several nanny agencies reported difficulties in finding suitable candidates to fill these types of positions - which often don't require the same range of nannying skills as a full-time sole-charge job - and may not provide the same levels of job satisfaction to a career nanny. Others observed that parents would now accept more mature nannies, often accompanied by their own young children, to fit these 'teatime nanny' roles, where they were previously reluctant to do so.
FLEXIBILITY RULES
Another significant trend is the increase in nanny/housekeeper positions being offered. Parents having to pay more are looking for greater value-for-money in their domestic arrangements, and this can sometimes include asking a nanny to take on an additional cooking or cleaning role. This is greatly disliked by most nannies.
The bottom line is that parents' domestic requirements and nannies' expectations appear to be strongly diverging, apart from at the top end of the market, where fully qualified or experienced career nannies are still looking for sole charge full-time employment with fixed hours, and a relatively small number of wealthy employers are seeking the same thing. This suggests the need for a more flexible approach, and more realistic expectations, on the part of newer nannies entering the job market.
FEW AND FAR PERKS
The same divergence between the top end of the market and most other nanny jobs is expressed in the perks being offered by employers. Many agencies reported that few perks were on offer as standard. The most common ones were health club membership, use of a family car or provision of a mobile phone. But outside of London most agencies reported that even these benefits, the latter two arguably part of the job and not perks at all, were rarely on offer.
As the exception to this rule, outstanding perks reported being offered by individual employers included use of a private jet, use of a chauffeur at the weekend, use of a Mercedes sports car, and use of the family holiday villa. Pick of the perks this year would probably be the nanny with her own en-suite swimming pool! But while these rare examples may make easy – and unrepresentative - press headlines, the wider reality is that many nannies are offered no perks at all.
For nannies based in the country, stabling for their own horse or the use of a horse were mentioned - although as an extension of the unpopular request for nannies to do some housekeeping, one agency commented that by the time a nanny had been asked to muck-out the stables and clean the tack, it was far from clear that the use of a horse was a benefit!
PREDICTIONS FOR 2002
A record 96 nanny agencies from all over the UK participated in this year's survey, which included several related questions about the changing shape of nannying today. When asked at what rate they thought nannies' wages would continue to rise over the next
12 months, 63 per cent of them thought they would remain roughly the same, while 27 per cent thought there would be only a small rise for inflation. Only 5 per cent believed that wages would rise above inflation, despite the fact that this is what has actually happened for each of the past three years, while 3 per cent thought that wages might fall slightly.
Several agencies commented that younger and less experienced nannies often had unrealistically inflated expectations of the sort of money they could earn in their first job, but one agency said that as unrealistic as these might appear to be, some parents were still prepared to meet them, pushing wages levels ever higher.
IMPACT OF WIDER EVENTS
While most nanny agencies said that their job market was unaffected by the foot and mouth disease epidemic last year, a few country-based agencies reported difficulties in placing nannies due to restricted access to farmers' families, while, conversely, one agency reported an increased provision of nannies to farmers' children who were stuck at home for many weeks.
More agencies felt that the slowdown in the UK economy had adversely affected new employment of nannies during 2001, because parents facing the threat or reality of job cuts had to make alternative, less expensive childcare arrangements.
For parents in the UK, the main impact of the 11 September terrorist attacks appears to have been among those most directly affected, namely employers working in the airline and travel industries and American families living and working in Britain. In the immediate psychological aftermath of these events it also appears that some nannies who might have been planning a job move chose to stay put, valuing job security more highly.
In summary, the survey results suggest that for an ever smaller number of nannies, excellent salaries in full-time jobs are achievable. Meanwhile, for many of their peers in less affluent parts of the country, a more flexible approach - often including more than one job - will be needed to earn the equivalent of a good full-time wage.