Friday, November 11, 2011

Nannies In Brooklyn Do Pretty Well, Considering

A recent survey by Park Slope Parents found that nannies in Brooklyn earn almost $15 an hour – twice the minimum wage – and receive an average of 11 paid days off a year plus paid holidays.

The Brooklyn Eagle conducted an informal survey in Brooklyn Heights: eight out of 10 respondents thought $15 an hour sounded about right.

More at the Brooklyn Eagle.

Photo by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

CASH, you forgot to mention that they mostly get paid CASH, which is better than all right. We pay taxes, they don't, and in some cases collect government benefits while claiming lack of income (because the cash in unreported) and unemployment on borrowed Social Security numbers (since many of the nannies are also undocumented and are not US citizens).

All in all, they do very, very well.

prl said...

Have you seen the paperwork you have to do to put the nanny on the legal books? You almost have to hire a lawyer. The gov. could get lots more in taxes if they simplified the whole thing to one form.

Anonymous said...

The paperwork isn't that hard and there are companies that will do it for a small fee (just like most small employers do). The problem is the lack of enforcement and penalty, but there is also the issue of few nannies willing to work on the books mainly because the largest segment of the labor pool are undocumented workers ie illegal aliens. An easy form won't make them legal.

Anonymous said...

Right. IT's So Easy:
FIRST: find out if nanny is legal and file form I-9.
THEN get her an Employer Authorization Number to put on tax forms you file for her. It’s not the same as a Social Security number. You have to apply for one on the I.R.S. Web site.
NEXT you need to withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. (If you pay total cash wages of $1,000 or more in aggregate in any quarter of a calendar year, you must pay federal unemployment taxes of another 0.8 percent of wages up to $7,000 a year.)
IF nanny wants you to withhold state, city and federal taxes, use the paycheck calculator at 4nannytaxes.com. Hope you're good at math!
NEXT: Pay state unemployment taxes. See IRS Publication 926.
NEXT: If your state requires workers comp (New York does) you have to set this up before your hire Nanny or pay thousands in fines. You have to use the entity the state set up for this. No other.
NEXT: you may have to make quarterly filings and payments to your state for unemployment taxes, as well as quarterly filings and payments to the federal government.
ALSO: You’ll also have to file Schedule H, the household employment tax form, with your federal tax return each April. Miss a deadline, and you could owe penalties and interest!
NEXT: keep copies of every employee pay stub, every form you file and proof of all payments from your bank. The I.R.S. suggests keeping records for at least four years after the due date of your tax return or the date you actually paid the taxes, whichever is later.
SO EASY!!!! (More details at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/your-money/taxes/24money.html?pagewanted=all)