Babysitting - what does it pay nowadays?

[marydell]

We're getting ready to have our 15-year-old neighbor start babysitting Charlie.  What do teenagers earn for babysitting nowadays? I think this is her first gig, and since she (well, her parents) refuse to let us pay her for house/cat/fish sitting, I think she'll undercharge if I leave it to her.  I want to pay her fairly.

I plan on starting her off babysitting while I'm in the house doing other stuff, by the way, so she can ease into it--that's how I learned and I really need to organize the damn basement, so it will be money well spent.

Comments

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Is she CPR qualified? Has she been through a babysitter's course?

Sorry, earned my cash as a teenager babysitting. On the military base it was a requirement that all babysitters be registered, classes, child CPR etc etc

I earned 2.00/hr 13 year ago...I was also tipped mightily (they were out for drinks usually).

[marydell.livejournal.com]

LOL, yes, she's had the red cross babysitter's course, and once she gets used to the baby we're going to ask her to do the cpr course (on our nickel) if she hasn't had it already. We also both need to re-up our CPR certification.

My dad is a professor at a catholic university, so I babysat for the kids of his younger colleagues, as well as neighbors, from the time I was 11 until I was 20 or so (summers and holidays anyway). I started off making a dollar an hour and ended up making something like 5 dollars an hour, 20 years ago. But the 5 dollars was for multiple kids.

I'm thinking something between 5 and 8 dollars an hour will be fair, hereabouts.

[real-gone-girl.livejournal.com]

it's about $7-10 an hour these days.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it varies from area to area. I'm paying $5 here in rural Massachusetts.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. I'm thinking somewhere from 5-8 is a good range hereabouts.

[vcmw]

Your $5-$8 sounds on the money. When I used to babysit 10-13 years ago I made $2/hr and I was grossly undercharging for our neighborhood then. $4-6 was more standard, with up to $10/hr if done through a hotel or similar or for multiple kids at a time.

I'd say that it might be great job-training skills for her if you articulated reasons for moving up the range. Like, she'll get $5 an hour while you're getting her oriented and still in the house, in consideration of her known reliability and taking the babysitting course. Then when you start having her babysit while you're not home you could up it and explain why, and then when she gets the baby cpr course done you could up it again and explain why, till you hit the top of your range more or less.

That would be a great lesson for her in skill-building = greater reimbursement at same task, which I think teens don't think about much.