Childcare Rate

Updated on July 28, 2012
M.T. asks from Naperville, IL
6 answers

Hello, I have a question regarding rates for childcare. My daughter who is 3 1/2 yeats old has been going to the babysitters house since she was 8 months old. Shr is the only child there. We currently pay $10/hour. we will start taking her and her brother who is 8 weeks old. What is the appropriate rate for this type of situation?

What can I do next?

  • Add yourAnswer own comment
  • Ask your own question Add Question
  • Join the Mamapedia community Mamapedia
  • as inappropriate
  • this with your friends

More Answers

M.D.

answers from Washington DC on

I pay $10 for all 3 of my kids when we have someone watching our kids who is in college or high school. They are happy with that and it's the going rate for our area.

If it's a full-time thing, why not pay weekly? Around here, a 3 year old would be about $150 a week and an infant (up to age 2) would be about $200 a week. So it would be $350 per week, but normally you'd get a discount for two kids maybe it would be $340 or something,.

2 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

N.P.

answers from Chicago on

Ok, those of you that pay $15 an hour, I am available, I can travel up to an hour away from Plainfield.
I run a home daycare in southern Plainfield and having a one on one situation is more of a Nanny then a daycare. Ask your provider what SHE wants to make. I charge $190 for a newborn, $180 when they turn one until they are potty trained where it drops to $155.
When I was a Nanny (back in 87 till 93ish) I made $6 an hour, no matter how many kids I had. But they treated me like family and I attended weddings and baby showers for all 3 kids, do Thanksgiving with them, etc. by the end of that time and I still did babysitting until 99 when they were honestly too old to need me.
For the person who mentioned state rates, those are WAY low. There is NO WAY I can just take a state rate, it's way too little for me to pay my own bills. I mean this is my income.

X.O.

answers from Chicago on

The hourly rate we pay our sitter, who sits in our home:

$12 - 1 kid
$15 - 2 kids
$20 - 3 kids

I would think that somewhere between $13-15/hr would be typical for 2 kids.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

J.G.

answers from Chicago on

We paid our regular sitter who is an older woman $10 an hour for our older daughter and then when we had our second daughter we started paying $15 an hour for the both of them.

We occasionally have college students who watch them when we go out at night on the weekends and they actually charge a little less. One said her rate was $8.50 for the two which I thought was too low so we pay her and another college student that occasionally comes $13 an hour for the two.

For high school students who we usually only use once the girls are in bed or at times when they won't need to assist with many meals/baths/bed-time routine etc, we pay $10 an hour for the two.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

S.S.

answers from Chicago on

I care for 2 children in district 204 (edge of aurora / naperville) When I started it was $10 an hour it is now $12 an hour. The kids are older 8 and 11. But if they were new borns it would be more.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

G.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

If she comes to your house she is not a baby sitter she is a nanny. If you take the kids to her she is a child care provider. I think you are paying a lot.

Also in child care you are paying for a person who is trained, fully licensed, who has first aid and CPR. has had hours and hours of professional training, etc....I think a "babysitter" should make a lot less per hour that a paid professional who is making just above minimum wages.

I think you are way over paying her for the care you are already getting.

Here's a copy of the State of Oklahoma's pay scale for child care. If a person needs child care and they can't afford it they can apply for assistance and this is how much they will pay a provider for services. The provider must have AT LEAST a "STAR+" rating or they lose their contract to get paid by the state. The more STAR's a facility has the more pay the state will give them.

All child care centers base their pay rates on what the state will pay. They can't really make one set of parents pay one rate then allow another parent to only pay part or the basic fee. That's just not fair to anyone.

Parents get up, get the kids ready to face the day. If the parent has to be at work at 8am and they have a half hour commute they have to have kids dropped of at child care by 7:15am in case traffic heavier than normal. They get to work and work 8-noon then go to lunch. Back at 1 and work to 5pm. They get to child care right at 5:30pm. That child has been in that facility over 10 hours and that is the normal day's length for all kids with parents who work 8am-5pm.

http://www.okdhs.org/NR/rdonlyres/2E81F###-###-####-487B-...

So, in a 3 STAR child care facility for a 3 1/3 year old child, between the ages of 25 months and 48 months the state of Oklahoma would pay a provider the amount of $27.75.

Did you get that? The whole day, up to about 10 hours for only $27.75.

If it's a 3 STAR home that is fully licensed and run by a professionally trained owner they get paid by the state the amount of $23.75, Per Day.

The provider supplies all the food, milk, all the snacks, etc...as part of that charge too. The parents pay nothing else nor do they provide anything else.

Now for an infant.

In a 3 STAR child care center the state would pay the provider $35.00 per day. For an infant up to age 12 months. Then once they were a toddler they would drop to$32.75 per day.

So top dollar child care for your 2 children would be a total of

$27.75 (3 1/2 yr. old) + $35.00 (infant) for a 10+ hour day = $62.75 per day. But most center's have a family rate that discounts the second child for cash paying parents.

$62.75 per day times 5 days per week = $313.75 per week for child care, that's over 50 hours of child care though.

So, a trained professional who is quite able to watch 4 babies, or 2 babies and 4 toddlers, or a baby and 5 older children (Child/Teacher ratio in Oklahoma) gets paid less than you are paying a nice babysitter.

For Updates and Special Promotions
Follow Us

Related Questions