The rather redundantly named group Park Slope Parents commissions an annual survey on the state of nannyhood in brownstone Brooklyn. It’s a little unclear whether this is to make sure childcare professionals are being treated well by the standards of educated liberalism, or whether people just want to know where they stack against their neighbors — or even whether those two impulses can be untangled from one another in the neighborhood.
In any case, the results, compiled from 1,000 households (nearly half of which are in Park Slope) show that the average hourly wage hovers around $15 an hour, or a bit more than twice New York state’s minimum wage. Nannies get an average of eleven days of paid leave. Eighty-six percent are given free range to eat whatever they want in the kitchen, and 29 percent are allowed to talk on their cell phones while caring for the kids. (On both measures, that is compared with 100 percent of suburban parents employing bored teenagers, according to my highly scientific, historical self-survey.) A full 63 percent of respondents didn’t officially report employing their nanny; the rest “either paid partly on the books, completely on the books or did not answer.”
As for the nannies themselves, the parents’ association says a survey of them is forthcoming. Now that — if the right questions were asked — is something we’d pay good money to read.
A Look at How Brooklyn Nannies Are Paid [NYT/CityRoom]
