Nannies are in short supply, so they’re commanding much higher wages.
Demand for nannies soared as the COVID-19 pandemic hit and hasn’t slacked. Nannies searching for jobs are empowered to ask for higher hourly wages given their scarcity, a change expected to last.
Nanny turnover froze during the pandemic, and several nannies were retained when families learned their children would transition to online classes and would need someone to look over them during the day, said Kristina Blum, who works as a placement provider for Your Happy Nest Nanny and Babysitting Agency. She has run the company’s Cincinnati, Ohio, office for almost six years.
A lot of people who didn’t have nannies “panic-hired” last summer to secure childcare.
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Your Happy Nest hoped and assumed those candidates who were retained or hired last summer during the height of the pandemic would be freed up this August when children returned to their classrooms, but that hasn’t been the case.
Blum said the nanny shortage is nationwide. Other agencies across the country tell her company they are facing the same low supply.
One possible factor boosting demand is that, as the delta variant of COVID-19 spreads, parents worry their children may suddenly be pulled back out of school. Over the past two weeks, new cases have increased 44%, hospitalizations have grown 53%, and deaths have more than doubled — raising the specter of renewed restrictions such as virtual learning.
The scarcity of available nannies has led to the hourly cost of nannies soaring.
Before the pandemic, Blum said her agency told parents to expect to pay about $17 or $18 an hour for a nanny to care for one child, although some with extensive experience or education could ask for $20 and up. Now, those experienced nannies are asking for $25 to $30 per hour and getting it — so Your Happy Nest is asking families to be open to paying $18 to $22 per hour.
Blum said the wage hikes have been a good thing for nannies because they are now at a point “where they can actually live a comfortable lifestyle.”
In addition to higher wages, Blum said the agency has seen an uptick in families initially offering nannies health insurance reimbursement, when previously that was something usually negotiated after one year of employment.
“So families can get creative with incentives they’re offering right now to draw attention to their position,” she said.
John Rosen, an adjunct economics professor at the University of New Haven, told the Washington Examiner it’s not just nannies who are bringing in more income. From a macro perspective, he said hourly wages across the board have increased since the pandemic began, with much of the growth coming amid the economic rebound.
Employment website ZipRecruiter reported hourly wages have been on the rise, with the number of job postings on the site advertising $15 an hour more than doubling since 2019. Given labor shortages, some companies have used higher wages and new incentives, such as increased benefits or signing bonuses.
Rosen acknowledged the nanny shortage and said people worked hard during the lockdown to pin their nannies into long-term employment and now don’t want to lose them.
Nannies may have won permanently higher wages.
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“At this point, a career nanny that can get $25 an hour isn’t going to go backwards,” Blum said, noting nannies also have to grapple with increased inflation, which includes housing and car prices.
Hourly wages for other jobs are also not expected to slide, according to Rosen. He predicts that while the pace of hourly wage growth will start to slow down, average wages themselves will not begin to decline.
