# How much should my wife get paid for this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308 "2014-04-17T02:38:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/41 "2014-04-17T14:23:46Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > An eight month old needs almost constant attention and they can be fussy as hell. I agree. Given the age of the child, $35 is too low. I’d ask for at least twice that. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/42 "2014-04-17T14:56:42Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > that question wasn’t what i expected when I saw the thread title. My first thought was “a million dollars is the usual amount, isn’t it?” ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/43 "2014-04-17T15:35:15Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > Holy hell childcare sounds cheap in the US! My Australian council-run daycare charges $100 per child per day (we have 2), and I’ve recently hired a mothers helper (to keep an eye on them while I’m working from home a day a week), the going rate is anywhere from $16-$25/hr - I pay $140 a day for this. My nanny’s 24 and a final year Childcare studies student (police check and working with children approved) so it’s a step above a babysitter. I’d die for $35/ day (and it would be illegal as below minimum wage here). I think this varies A LOT by area. In DC, 300-500 a week is normal for centers, and maybe 800 a month for a home day care. A nanny would be $15-25 an hour. I think your wife needs to charge at least double what she is planning. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/44 "2014-04-17T15:43:06Z")
It really depends on where you live. Check out daycare pricing and then charge about the same. Woman gets one on one care for her kid and if she’s only looking for one day a week no daycare is going to take her anyway. They usually have a waiting list for spots and filling one day with her means they can’t take another 5 days a week kid. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/45 "2014-04-17T15:47:19Z")
> [@Zulema](#): > > your wife would then have to claim it as income on her own return. She has to claim it as income either way, doesn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/46 "2014-04-17T15:47:53Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > She has to claim it as income either way, doesn’t she? Depends on how honest she is. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/47 "2014-04-17T15:53:13Z")
How do liability waivers hold up in court in cases like this? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/48 "2014-04-17T17:26:46Z")
My daughter has been a nanny/babysitter for about 8 years now. She charges based on what the client can afford, basically. In one of the familes she works for both mom and dad are doctors. They pay her $15/hr for 3 days per week with paid time off and a one year auto renewing contract. In another client family both parents are teachers. She charges about $5/hr, one day per week with no contract. Others get charged somewhere in between on a more ad hoc basis. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/49 "2014-04-17T17:51:58Z")
Yeah, $35 is not nearly enough for a _baby_. If it were a six year old who’s going to sit and watch cartoons, that’s different. I don’t know what the going rate is around here, but I sure wouldn’t keep a baby for less than minimum wage. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/50 "2014-04-17T20:25:50Z")
$35 sounds like a fairly small amount, but suppose the mother is somewhere making $9 an hour while your wife babysits. $5 of that $9 per hour goes to your wife. Childcare is not cheap, especially if your income isn’t that great. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/51 "2014-04-17T21:02:31Z")
$50, same as downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/52 "2014-04-17T21:38:07Z")
Just as one data point, my nanny gets $16.50 per hour. ETA: Well, she’s not _my_ nanny, but you know what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/53 "2014-04-17T21:56:30Z")
I could see taking that amount of money if I had sold myself to the mother as a charitable do-gooder looking to help a needy person. A “paid volunteer”, if that makes any sense. And someone making $9/hour with a baby is a needy person. Under such an arrangement, the mother would know (and hopefully appreciate) that she was getting a significant discount. And hopefully she would understand the relationship isn’t quite the same if she were paying the going rate. For instance, if she were paying the going rate (whatever that is), then it might be okay to be late picking up the baby on occasion. But there should be fewer such liberties if I’m getting paid the same as a 15-year-old, right? The mother would need to agree with me on that. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/54 "2014-04-17T22:44:57Z")
Our daycare lady watches kids out of her home and charges us $40 a day. New parents are being charged $50 a day, mostly babies and a few older kids. Our daughter is in school now but ends up there during spring break or whatever from time to time. Chicago suburbs for what it’s worth. Whoever suggested a hundred dollars a day is way too high, that’s $500 a week! More than you’d pay a downtown Chicago full service daycare. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/55 "2014-04-17T23:07:24Z")
The going rate for petsitting (refilling water and food dishes, cleaning litterboxes, letting dogs out to potty) where I live is between $10-15 per hour in the client’s home, and perhaps half that for pets housed at the sitter’s home. And I live in a low cost of living region. And I’m happy to pay that when needed. I’m thinking if I had a baby that needed taken care of by someone else, I’d be willing to pay more than what I pay to let my dogs out to poop. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/56 "2014-04-18T00:50:14Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Hmm…you’ve hung out with an 8-month-old right? I mean, you must have, you’ve got a kid. > > Did she just hang out and do her own thing while you were free to go about your day? I somehow missed that it was an 8-month old. But you can still tote an 8 month old around the house while you’re working, take it shopping and running errands etc (if the mother allows it). This isn’t to say that it’s easy or she couldn’t charge more, but to me, there’s a difference between hiring someone full time and paying someone one day a week to babysit at their home. > [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > Holy hell childcare sounds cheap in the US! My Australian council-run daycare charges $100 per child per day (we have 2) So you’re paying $40-50,000 a year for child care? ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/57 "2014-04-19T09:48:12Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > I somehow missed that it was an 8-month old. But you can still tote an 8 month old around the house while you’re working, take it shopping and running errands etc (if the mother allows it). > > This isn’t to say that it’s easy or she couldn’t charge more, but to me, there’s a difference between hiring someone full time and paying someone one day a week to babysit at their home. > > So you’re paying $40-50,000 a year for child care? I pay around about $25k for 3 days care - but yes many women here in Australia do not go back to work until their kids are in school because they would be financially worse off. The government pays a rebate of 50% approved care (so my daycare counts but not the nanny) capped at $7800 per child, but this can soon get maxed out (I’m maxed out at 3 days already). ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308/58 "2014-04-19T15:25:32Z")
$35 for a day of work is not much, but hanging out with a baby is not necessarily relentless toil and misery. You can bring the kid around on errands, enjoy some time at the park with it, do chores around the house, play with it, etc. Sure, you would make more money at the McD’s drive-thru, but some people actually like babies and getting paid a bit is a bonus. The person watching the baby is the only one qualified to determine whether it is worth it for the price. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-should-my-wife-get-paid-for-this/686308.md?page=2)