According to recent data, UK nannies are experiencing a wage boom following the epidemic and Brexit.
While many workers this year will experience wage increases that are below inflation, nannies’ salaries have increased by 13% over the past year.
Currently, the average gross yearly wage for a nanny in London is £39,806, or £15.31 per hour.
And those in the rest of the UK make an average of £32,552 ($12.52/hour), which is more than £1,000 more than the average wage for the nation.
The shortage of childcare providers and the rising cost of nursery spaces are reportedly what are driving the pay increase, which a certain fictitious nanny would easily describe as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
According to experts, demand for in-house childcare services increased as a result of Covid lockdowns and has not yet decreased to pre-pandemic levels.
NannyTax, a nanny support and employment business that provided the statistics, claims that Brexit is also a role.
According to them, more chances for British childcare workers will arise as a result of harsher regulations following Brexit, which would prevent au pairs from EU nations from travelling freely to the UK.
According to the Nannytax research, “Families that formerly had an Au pair are now seeking for nannies to cover their childcare arrangements, driving further demand.”
The results for the tax year 2021/22 are based on roughly 8,000 of the company’s internal payroll records, which are published in the annual Nannytax Salary Index.
The numbers are based on nannies working 50 hours per week while living at home.
They demonstrate how London has the highest average pay for nannies in the UK, at £15.31 per hour.
And nannies are best paid in west London, which is home to affluent neighbourhoods like Chelsea, Kensington, and Richmond, with an hourly average wage of £15.75.
The best region for nannies’ salary outside of London is the south east of England, where the average wage is £14.59, with Oxfordshire having the highest wage at £16.02.
According to Nannytax, Lincolnshire in the East Midlands is the county with the highest average wage in the UK. There, nannies make an hourly wage of £17.56, which is higher than in downtown London.
The hourly rate for nannies in Northern Ireland is between £6.50 and £11.00 less than it is in the highest-paying location.
Wales pays the next-lowest hourly rate at £11.28, followed by the West Midlands at £11.99
Although London offers the best pay for nannies, the biggest compensation increases occurred elsewhere.
Nannytax reports that nannies outside of London made an average salary of £32,552 last year, an increase of 12.7% from the year before.
The amount in London is £39,806, up 8.4%, while Greater London and the Home Counties recorded the lowest increase, 2.8% to £35,438.
The demand for nannies first increased during the first lockdown, when nurseries were forced to close their doors and nannies were the only childcare providers allowed to continue working, according to Kirsty Wild, a nanny employment expert at Nannytax, who was speaking about the statistics.
Some parents also believed that hiring a nanny was a safer choice for their kids than leaving them in daycare centers or childminders.
But it turns out that was no passing fad. Since then, demand has remained extremely strong, despite Brexit laws prohibiting EU au pairs and nannies from working in the UK and a rise in families moving to rural locations that aren’t always well-served by nurseries, supported by changes in the workplace.
Some of these families’ only practical childcare alternative is to hire a nanny.
The rising demand for in-home childcare, together with a candidate shortage made worse by Brexit, has contributed to the increases in compensation, said Frankie Grey, founder of the UK nanny service Harmony at Home.
We are busier than ever since there are considerably more positions available than there are applicants.
Despite being the most expensive childcare option, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of nanny firms claim that the expense of caring for multiple children is no more expensive than caring for one.
The Tax-Free Childcare program also allows for the payment of approved nannies.
Tax-Free childcare is, regrettably, underutilized, says Wild. Even though 1.3 million families are eligible, only a little over 512,000 households have signed up for it.
We encourage all qualified parents to take advantage of this discount because this program can be utilized to pay authorized nannies up to £2,000 per child per year.
The practice of sharing a nanny between two or more families is growing in popularity, but the families involved should be aware that each employer is required to pay the nanny at least the federal minimum wage.
It comes after news broke last year that affluent families are using ‘dirty techniques’ and paying eye-watering fees in an effort to recruit great nannies.
According to Lucy Challenger, the founder of upscale London nanny agency Polo and Tweed, a current shortage of nannies and au pairs due to Brexit has led wealthy families to court the nannies of their friends and shower them with gifts and promises of an opulent lifestyle in the hopes that they will leave their current employers and take care of their children instead.
Benefits can range from £70,000 annual wages to monthly spa visits, fancy automobiles, and trips overseas.
One family even offered an all-expenses-paid stay in a Chelsea apartment as an incentive.
Nannies are becoming more conscious of their earning potential; some even request that families fill out formal offers specifying the perks they will receive as part of their employment, such as paid driving lessons, gym memberships, and weekends away at the families’ vacation homes.
In order to prevent their nannies from being hired by someone else, Ms. Challenger advised parents who want to maintain them to give them large wage raises as soon as feasible.
“I heard of one family that snatched the nanny of their friends after witnessing her talent at a dinner party at their home.
They quietly obtained her phone and promised her a signing incentive of a Range Rover and a salary of £70,000, she claimed.
Some parents reportedly set up meetings with the nannies of their friends in order to capture their as well, promising up to a £25,000 wage raise and automobiles.
Another woman courted the nanny of a friend by offering to listen to her grievances.
If families want to maintain their nannies, Ms. Challenger advised them to give them a raise.
There has never been a better moment to be a professional nanny, she added, adding that you need to be a genuinely good person to work with.