You’ve looked over your child care options, and you’re pretty sure getting a nanny is the best choice for your family. The thing is: It’s not cheap. According to Job Bank, Canada’s national employment service, the national average cost of a nanny is $15.63 per hour, or $625.20 for a 40-hour week—many times the average cost of a child care or family care centre. The higher price tag leaves some families asking: How can I make hiring a nanny more affordable?
How much you pay for a nanny depends on a wide variety of factors, some of which can provide opportunities for negotiating lower rates or saving money elsewhere. And nanny contracts are highly customizable, so there are many ways to tailor an arrangement that works for everyone.
Here are a few ways you can save money while hiring a nanny.
1. Get in on a nanny share
One way families can save costs on nanny services is to pair up with another family and share a nanny. Nanny shares allow families to enjoy a lot of the benefits of having a nanny—personalized, attentive, home-based child care—without having to pay full price for one. This might also be an option if you live in an area where child care is scarce.
Sharing a nanny, however, doesn’t split the price of a nanny in half. Nanny share setups are a lot more work for the nanny. They essentially have two different employers, and that can complicate things. As a result, nannies tend to charge more in nanny share setups than with individual families. But because families split the costs, it still ends up being less—about two-thirds the costs—than if they had hired their own nanny.
2. Consider offering additional benefits in exchange for lower pay rates
You can work with your nanny to negotiate a lower rate in exchange for additional employment benefits—this might mean more paid time off or allowing the nanny to bring their grandchild to work with them. However, you’ll need to ensure that you’re still paying the minimum wage and benefits that your nanny is legally entitled to.
3. Choose a nanny with less experience or fewer qualifications
Nannies with bachelor’s or master’s degrees or other certificates or specialized training are able to charge more for their services. But nannies who don’t have a long list of degrees can still provide high-quality care. Families should ask themselves what their most important qualifications are in a nanny and determine what they are willing to pay more for, as well as what they can live without.
4. Take advantage of government assistance
You can receive assistance through the Canada Child Benefit, a tax-free cash benefit for medium- and low-income families with children. These are monthly payments, which, depending on your income, can amount to over $6,000 per child per year. A family with a total annual income of $60,000, for example, and one child aged 6 to 17 would be entitled to an annual benefit of $3,999. Provincial governments offer additional child benefits and tax credits.
5. Adjust your schedule
If you really love a nanny but aren’t sure you can pay their requested rate, you may need to get creative on your end. If the nanny is open to fewer hours and there’s flexibility on your end, work with your partner, employer or a family member to adjust schedules so you can reduce the number of hours your nanny will be needed.
Maybe you and your partner offset your work schedules by a few hours in the morning and in the late afternoon, so one of you leaves earlier and comes home earlier while the other leaves later and comes home later. Or maybe a family member can do the few hours after school and before you arrive home from work. Arrangements like these can trim two to four hours a day off the hours you need child care.
6. Consolidate outsourcing
Another common way families work to lower costs overall is to look at what other services they may be already paying for, such as house cleaning, and ask the nanny if they are comfortable taking on some of those responsibilities for an additional fee. Consolidating what families outsource into a single role—such as a nanny-housekeeper or simply a “household manager”—can help reduce costs overall.
This situation works best when the children’s schedules offer breaks in the day when the nanny can focus on other tasks, such as when kids go to school or take long naps.
Potential services some families outsource that could be offered to a nanny include:
- Meal prep
- House cleaning
- Dog walking
- Tutoring
- Grocery shopping
Think outside the box to trim costs where you can. Every little bit counts.
