Am I being unreasonable?

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
I've been job hunting, mostly for nanny jobs. At my last job I worked 35-40 hours per week and go $10 per hour. I applied for one job and thought I was hired until I found out she was paying $225 per week, even though it was for over 40 hours and she advertised it at$10 per hour. Today I applied for what was advertised as a full time job at $10 per hour and she wants to pay $170 a week. Does 40 hours times $10 not still equal $400? What the hell do these people expect? I don't think I'm greedy but if you plan to only pay $3-$5 an hour you should say so before you get people to apply. I'm a little disgusted!
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
No, you are not being unreasonable at all. My easy child worked as a nanny for a month after school got out and got paid $13.50 an hour to take care of two little twin boys. I thought that she was underpaid!

~Kathy
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
I'm not necessarily upset that they only want to pay a little; I understand that people who work at crappy jobs need child care just as much and sometimes more than other people. What makes me mad is that they aren't clear about it upfront. If you can only pay $3 or $4 an hour, say so. Probably somebody will work for that but for me it's not possible because I would not have enough money to live. Don't waste my time and yours by lying about the job because after we've both spent all of the time and energy on applications and interviews and references, etc. when you tell me you're paying less than half of what you said, I'm not taking the job anyway.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
You're not being unreasonable at all Mutt. In fact, I think you're being downright reasonable.

FWIW, in my area the going hourly rate for nannies is anywhere from $15 to $30 per hour, depending on whether they're independent or agency, # of children, etc.

I agree that if people can't afford to pay a lot for child care they should be up front about it. However, if these are listings on places like Craigslist, sometimes other posters spam-report ads with wages that they consider "too low". It's possible that the family was trying to get their ad out in the only way they knew how.

Tangential, but something to think about for the families in question. I know of some families who "share" a nanny. As in, Mrs. Smith takes her children to Mrs. Jones's house in the morning, the nanny looks after both sets of children at the Jones house, and the Smiths and Jones split by # of children involved.

Would you be willing to take on that sort of arrangement, stacking up a family or two, in order to get the money you're looking for from people who can't afford to pay your rate?

Just thinking of contingencies...

Trinity
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
The issue is the dishonesty involved.

Given Trinity's kind comments, I feel a little badly to say so, but...how would you be able to trust anything these people tell you if they are dishonest about your wages?

Cedar
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
I'm just getting really depressed over the job hunting thing. I'm still applying for nanny jobs but I put my name in at several preschools and I'm thinking of applying at Petsmart and PetCo. I really didn't want to do retail as I don't especially want to work nights and weekends but maybe I'll have to try it. There is a Home Depot and a Lowe's close to me that I may apply at also. I had decided to give it till the 15th with the nanny search but after that I'd better start trying some other things. I'm afraid if I get a regular job, they'll offer health insurance and I think maybe you have to take it and that would mean I'd have to mess with my Medicare and supplement that I'm perfectly happy with. If my darned difficult child hadn't spent all the money we inherited, I wouldn't need a job. I just really have a bad attitude right now.
 
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