A reader’s question
A parent who signs her letter “Mom Needs a Break” wrote to columnist Lizzy with a familiar dilemma: how much should a teen babysitter be paid? The parent says that when she offers an amount, the sitter always says it’s fine—but she wonders if that’s really the case. She asks whether to offer minimum wage, pay per hour, charge more for multiple kids, or consider the age of the children. She also notes that some parents think they should pay less if the kids are asleep while the sitter is there, a practice she says doesn’t sit well with her.
Lizzy, who writes the advice column that appears in several news outlets including M Live Michigan, nj.com, and The Oregonian, admits she couldn’t immediately answer the question—even as a former teen and preteen babysitter herself.
A formula based on age
Lizzy says she started babysitting in the ’90s at age 11, earning $3 an hour to watch three girls all summer. She says she’s pretty sure no reasonable adult would hire an 11-year-old to watch three kids alone these days, and that $3 is no longer the going rate.
To figure out what is, she asked social media: What do you pay a teen babysitter? Based on the input she received, she proposes a base pay equal to the sitter’s age. An 11-year-old would get $11 an hour, a 12-year-old $12, and so on.
That, she says, is just the starting point. She suggests adding at least $2 an hour per extra kid, $3 for a baby or an especially tricky kid—or $1 extra to the base rate if there’s only one baby or one tricky kid—and an extra $1 for a sitter who is CPR certified and has taken the Red Cross babysitting course.
Other advice: food, raises, and tips
Lizzy also addresses the question of whether kids being asleep matters. She says pay should be the same whether the kids are awake or asleep.
She advises providing enough food for the sitter at every meal and snack. She also recommends giving a raise to a good, reliable sitter and tipping when you come home to sleeping kids and a clean living room.
Why the columnist quit babysitting
Lizzy says she quit babysitting because parents were mean or thoughtless—not because of low pay. The advice column includes a call for readers to submit questions via email or a Google form.