You just found your perfect job. The family’s expectations of you line up with the way you prefer to work and you get along with them. There’s only one small hiccup—you want the benefits that come with professional pay, but they’ve never paid employer taxes before and aren’t sure if they want or can afford to. So how do you go about convincing them to pay you professionally?
1. Explain the benefits of legal pay
Taxes withheld from your pay make it easier to qualify for the short-term and long-term benefits other workers enjoy—such as Social Security & Medicare benefits when you retire, unemployment insurance, access to healthcare subsidies and a verifiable employment history that’s required for obtaining loans and credit. Professional pay also protects both you and your employer if you get audited.
2. Offer resources to help
One of the main reasons families don’t pay nanny taxes is because they’re not tax and payroll experts and don’t know what to do. You can help ease their worry by sharing information with them about nanny taxes and even what specific requirements they’ll have in the state you live in. And if they’re worried about the work involved, let them know that Care.com® HomePay, provided by Breedlove can handle the entire process for them— and provide a complimentary consultation.
Families also may have concerns about the cost of paying legally. If so, they’ll probably be pleasantly surprised to learn that tax breaks can sometimes offset most, if not all, of their employer tax costs. Our Employer Budget Calculator will help them see that nanny taxes may cost less than they think.
3. Talk about what your pay should look like
Professional pay is based on “gross wages” (before taxes) rather than “net pay” (after taxes). If a family is offering you a given net pay, you can simply convert that to a gross amount using our Employee Paycheck Calculator. For example, if you’d like a “take-home” pay of $500 a week, you may ask for a gross wage of $616. (The gross wage is dependent on your income tax withholding elections). Here’s an example you can use:
Gross Wage:
$616.00
Social Security & Medicare
$47.12
Income Tax
$68.72
Total Tax Withholdings
$115.84
NET PAY
$500.16