According to 2019 Care.com data, Valentine’s Day was the second-most popular holiday for parents to post babysitting jobs (right after New Year’s Eve). This means that Valentine’s Day should rank pretty high on every sitter’s list of favorite holidays to work since it presents you with an excellent opportunity to make some extra cash — and a lot of it, depending on where you live.
We decided to dig a little deeper into this data to figure out which cities offer the best opportunities for babysitters to “make bank” on Valentine’s Day. Here’s what we found.
First, we ranked 37 cities based on how easy — or hard — it is for a babysitter to get hired for a Valentine’s Day babysitting job. Here are the 10 easiest places to find a babysitting job on the big day:
| “Easiest city to find a job” rank |
City, State |
| 1 | Cincinnati, OH |
| 2 | Cleveland, OH |
| 3 | Columbus, OH |
| 4 | Portland, OR |
| 5 | Sacramento, CA |
| 6 | Austin, TX |
| 7 | Denver, CO |
| 8 | Pittsburgh, PA |
| 9 | San Antonio, TX |
| 10 | Seattle, WA |
How much could babysitters make on Valentine’s Day?
Once we determined where babysitters would have the easiest time landing Valentine’s Day babysitting gigs, we decided to figure out how much they could make in each city. To do this, we first looked at the average hourly rates offered for Valentine’s Day babysitting jobs in each of the 37 cities. Based on that number, we then calculated the amount of money a babysitter in each city could expect to make for five hours of work.
Want to see how your city stacked up against the rest? Take a look at the table below:
| “Easiest city to find a job” rank |
City, State | Average hourly Valentine’s Day Rate |
Earning after 5 hours of work |
| 1 | Cincinnati, OH | $16.33 | $82 |
| 2 | Cleveland, OH | $15.77 | $79 |
| 3 | Columbus, OH | $15.82 | $79 |
| 4 | Portland, OR | $17.97 | $90 |
| 5 | Sacramento, CA | $17.58 | $88 |
| 6 | Austin, TX | $16.27 | $81 |
| 7 | Denver, CO | $17.94 | $90 |
| 8 | Pittsburgh, PA | $17.60 | $88 |
| 9 | San Antonio, TX | $16.42 | $82 |
| 10 | Seattle, WA | $19.53 | $98 |
| 11 | Detroit, MI | $16.57 | $83 |
| 12 | Minneapolis, MI | $16.97 | $85 |
| 13 | Phoenix, AZ | $16.99 | $85 |
| 14 | Philadelphia, PA | $17.26 | $86 |
| 15 | San Francisco, CA | $19.08 | $95 |
| 16 | Jacksonville, FL | $14.36 | $72 |
| 17 | Atlanta, GA | $16.46 | $82 |
| 18 | Tampa, FL | $15.99 | $80 |
| 19 | Virginia Beach, VA | $16.41 | $82 |
| 20 | Baltimore, MD | $16.67 | $83 |
| 21 | San Jose, CA | $18.77 | $94 |
| 22 | Riverside, CA | $18.25 | $91 |
| 23 | Raleigh, NC | $14.59 | $73 |
| 24 | Houston, TX | $17.55 | $88 |
| 25 | Chicago, IL | $16.98 | $85 |
| 26 | Las Vegas, NV | $15.70 | $78 |
| 27 | Boston, MA | $18.26 | $91 |
| 28 | Charlotte, NC | $16.43 | $82 |
| 29 | Dallas, TX | $16.47 | $82 |
| 30 | St. Louis, MO | $16.32 | $82 |
| 31 | Los Angeles, CA | $17.54 | $88 |
| 32 | Washington D.C. | $17.95 | $90 |
| 33 | Orlando, FL | $17.15 | $86 |
| 34 | Miami, FL | $17.81 | $89 |
| 35 | Buffalo, NY | $19.25 | $96 |
| 36 | San Diego, CA | $17.45 | $87 |
| 37 | New York, NY | $18.72 | $94 |
| 36 | San Diego, CA | $17.45 | $87 |
| 37 | New York, NY | $18.72 | $94 |
Methodology
This study gathered data from 37 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) on the number of babysitting jobs posted on Valentine’s Day and the weekend before Valentine’s Day in 2019. Each city is ranked based on the number of babysitting jobs compared to the number of babysitters applying, so the top ranked cities have the most jobs available per babysitter. The average hourly rate is the average rate offered by families in their job postings in each city. Using that number, we were able to determine the total amount of money a babysitter could expect to earn for five hours of work on Valentine’s Day.
