Howdy - I'm just wondering what the going rate for baby sitters is these days. What do you pay your baby sitter, how old are they, what are their qualifications?

Also, I was wondering, what you would pay a 'mother's helper,' like a jr. high student who played with, took care of the baby, etc while you were home but working in another room?

We live in a pretty expensive part of California, if that makes a difference.

(when I was a baby sitter, I remember getting paid $2/hr--I think that rate has probably gone up :crazy: )
Thanks!

Where I am in California, the going rate for a babysitter is about $10-12 per hour. One friend has hired a student from the local junior college who's in their child development program- she was getting paid $12. I had a friend who had a jr. high student "mother's helper", but I'm not sure what she was getting. I'm sure it was much less. There is also something in our town called "The Switchboard". They give you 5 names of helpers/sitters that meet your requests for qualifications, etc. and you can call and interview them. If none of them work for you, you can call the switchboard back for more names. It's a free service... something like that might be another way you could get an idea of what people are being paid (or requesting to be paid).

HOLY SMOKES!!!!

Where I leave, the going babysitting rate is around $2.50-$3.50 an hour. I don't know about mother's helpers, but I would probably pay them the same. I would never consider paying anyone more than $5 an hour. (though, my sitters are almost always family who sit for free)

Here in Toronto, the average wage is probably $10/hr with rates being anywhere from $8/hr to $12/hr depending on age of sitter and background i.e. ECE graduate, etc.

I pay our high school babysitter $5/hr for two kids or $3/hr for my 9 yo after school. If I use my licensed daycare lady for 40 hrs. a week, it works out to be $3.75/hr. I pay her $150/wk regardless of how many hours.

I can't imagine paying any mother's helper more than $3/hr or a flat rate of $5 for a period of time. Most girls in jr./sr. high welcome the opportunity to help and play with a baby. The money is usually just a bonus.

I live in Boston, and like California we're in the $10 - $12/hr. range for babysitters. No idea what to pay a mother's helper, but I'm guessing around $8?

We pay $10-$12/hr. and we usually throw in a tip. The (VERY few) times we've left both boys we've actually hired two sitters, one sitter and one mother's helper, who we pay $4/hr. (she's only 13 years old and is thrilled with making any amount of money). It makes me MUCH more comfortable knowing each kid has their own "person" to see after them when we're gone, so it's worth the extra $ for us.

Just bumping this up. :)

I'm curious what the going rate is everywhere?

We paid our sitters (high school seniors) $10/per hour. We'll raise it to $12 with two kids. One thing I would add is that we didn't let our sitters watch TV while Leah was up or let Leah watch TV/videos, so we felt like we had to pay a little more. :)

We usually pay $8-$10 an hour depending on who it is and if the kids are awake or asleep.

Dennis

We pay $10/hr for the three kids (and one of them is always in bed, so really, its two kids). We round up at the end of the night. Oh yeah - our sitter is a college student. When she sits for the twins next week, I will pay $8/hr.

We pay $8 an hour and everyone here thinks we are crazy for paying so much! I don't think it's so bad though after reading this thread! I can't imagine paying only $3/hour. That's crazy! I figure, if we are paying more than others, than the girls are going to want to do a good job so that we ask them back! Oh - our babysitter will be a senior in high school this August! We love her - she works at our church in the nursery and she also works at a local fitness center in the nursery and she will be majoring in early childhood education. She's awesome and Carter loves her!

Well, we had a girl who will be in 9th grade this fall watch Katie a few times. She knocked on our door with a flyer shortly after we moved in, and she had just completed her babysitting certification course. Her advertised rate was $2 per hour, plus $1 per hour for each additional child. :jawdrop: We've NEVER paid her that, though. We always pay her closer to $5 an hour, and we think that is still incredibly cheap. She's great, too. I can't recall her EVER watching a video with Katie or anything like that. She comes with her own bag full of toys and craft stuff, and usually has a lot of things planned for the time she's here. We've only actually left her alone with Katie once, but that's just because she's been helping while we're getting settled in our new house. We'd trust her to watch Katie for the evening if we wanted or needed her to. So, we feel really lucky to have found her, and fully expect to get into a bidding war with some other parents in the near future... :lol:

I live South of Boston. My sitter is going to be a senior in high school next year. We pay her $7 an hour. We figured that she could get a job at a fast food place or at the mall making min. wage so we should pay her at least that much. I always round it up so she gets a little bit more.

A mother's helper, someone younger I pay $5 per hour.

as a babysitter in the 11th grade i usually charge a flat rate of $10 a kid or an hourly rate of $2 an hour. and thats the cheapest i've heard of in Indiana or well really at all because i've noticed everyone wants 10$ an hour but i love kids and they usually listen to me thats why im so cheap.

I live in a medium size town in MN and the going rate here is 2.50-3/hour. Most of the time the kids aren't 16 so they couldn't get a job someplace else which is why the rates can be so low. Minimum wage in town I think is around 5.50-6?

We give our babysitter $10 an hour for both kids if it is going to be from 1-4 hours and $8 an hour if it is going to be 5+ hours. She loves this plan, not to mention we pay her $2 more an hour then what she asks...we want to make sure that she gives us first priority in the neighborhood!

We pay $5-7 an hour depending on the sitter, who she's watching, how long we'll be gone, if the kids are asleep.

She's never complained and is still watching them after 5 years. We've upped our rates as we've had more kids. Although now, with Austin being 9, he does a great deal of the work. So he gets a little frustrated that she gets paid while he puts Isabella down for her nap or to bed and makes them all lunch.

Depends. Our long standing babysitter is cheaper than most...5-7.50 an hours. I wouldn't cringe at 10-12 though...which is why I try to trade babysitting too!

I charge 6$ an hour as a Nanny to little 1 year old Timmy. I also only charge 1$ to Amanda's parents. She is 10 and a huge help so her 1$ an hour feeds her. She is only here on the same days as I have Timmy. And only for the summer. Not to mention she is only here off and on throughout the summer because her dad gets a lot of weeks off. I have already had 3 weeks off from her this summer and I get next week off while I am on vacation so I just didn't feel right charging much more.

Our babysitter comes to our home to watch our two children, ages 4 yrs and 6 months. She gets $7.00/hr for anything up to 5 hrs. Anything over 5 hrs, we pay her $40.00. She is 33 and brings her 2 yr old daughter with her.