Monthly pay for part time helper

I do not want any discussions regarding legality here please, I'm just asking a question regarding pay.


If you were to hire a part time helper for a monthly fixed rate what would a fair rate be for the following situation:



Housework, about 5 hours -4 times per month

babysitting, 2 evenings per month



We want to be fair to the helper but we also want to get a little value for our dollar...let me explain...


We don't get childcare much at all and I'm a full time mum so we don't have any home help but we'd like to start with a little to ease into the whole idea before we decide to get a full timer when we have another baby.


We hired a friends helper a couple of months ago and paid $60 per hour for 7 hours for baby sitting. the 1st hour was bedtime routine for the kid and not more than an hour more was spent ironing 4 shirts and mopping the kitchen floor (the 2 small things we asked her to do). A few small but obvious things were completely ignored that I would have liked to have seen a little initiative put into such as giving the kitchen counter a quick wipe over. The remaining 5 she spent mostly asleep on the sofa.



I think my point is that the $450 (we rounded it up from 420) we paid for that one evening of baby sitting, I feel like we really didn't get our money's worth. We saw a movie and had a simple dinner, yet the cost of childcare came to more than ½ of the total cost for the evening out. She didn't even seem to show any kind of appreciation yet we were gracious and thanked her for her time. I thought we had been generous?


We'd like to figure out what we can pay someone as a fixed monthly rate for a fixed amount of work so that both our expences are predictable and her income is too. We also don't want to feel ripped off like last time.


Some friends have suggested that the $1200 per month I came up with for the above work hours is way too much and it should be more like $800. Does that sound right?

We paid our part time helper $1700 per month and that was for 4hrs a day, twice a week (32 hrs a month in total). That however, did not include babysitting. We paid her $50 hr for babysitting just one child.


You sound like you are in the same position as us. We hired a part timer until I fell pregnant with our second. It's well worth going down the part time route as it gets you used to having someone around.


I don't think $1,200 is much and I don't think a helper would work part time for $800. You need to take into account travel as well. It may be difficult to find someone to work for oly $800 a month.

I would say no matter the number of hours but I think no one would like to work anything less than $40 per hour. As neenib suggested as well, you need to think about their travelling time. It is always better to find some one local. As for initiative, I think you'd better forget that. And trust me for this, it is much better for you and for her as well if you can list out everything (in detail) that you want her to finish within that limited number of hours. Clearly explain your priority (baby always the first etc) is also an important factor for it to work out. Of course, when she gets used to her job, she shld be able to do it without too many repetitions from you.