I remember being thrilled as a young teenager to be earning $2.00-$3.00 an hour babysitting the local neighborhood children. How times have changed! I was in for quite a surprise when I could no longer depend on Grandma as by built-in babysitter for my three small children and had to “hire” a new babysitter. I had no idea what to expect in terms of what the going rate would be so I figured the best way to find out was to ask friends, other mothers at my gym and families in my neighborhood what they typically paid for their babysitters. From the different answers I got, I was able to determine that the hourly rate for babysitting ranged from $7.00-$15.00 (at least in my area) and is usually determined by several factors:
Location How far the sitter has to travel Number of children being watched The sitter’s experience Length of babysitting time

After I had a pretty good idea of the range I would be expected to pay, I became a member of SitterCity, an online babysitting matchmaking service and began looking for local sitters in my area. While reading the profiles of the sitters I was interested in, I noticed that most of them had posted the range of pay they expected along with their experience, references, etc. Before I spent time moving forward with checking references and setting up interviews, it was great to know what the sitter was looking for ahead of time and if it was an amount I was comfortable with. Of course price shouldn’t be the most important factor when choosing a babysitter, but it should be a reasonable rate that you are both happy with to ensure a great working relationship.

By: Joi Wengert

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