As Bay Area Booms, So Do Nannies’ Salaries

Child care can be a lucrative career here, with nannies’ salaries approaching those of starting engineers and desperate parents willing to throw in cell phones and signing bonuses.

Nannies say the high pay is necessary, considering the cost of living, and parents are willing to pay, according to a report in today’s San Francisco Examiner.

“If you went to any other state and asked for $40,000, they would laugh at you hysterically and walk away,” said Bethany Von Hagen, a nanny in Palo Alto. “But it’s much more necessary out here because it’s ridiculously expensive to live out here.”

Some full-time nannies, especially in the well-to-do cities of Atherton and Menlo Park, can pull in $60,000 a year. That’s an attraction for many preschool teachers, who can increase their salaries by as much as 50%.

Nannies provide in-home child care, working full or part time, and sometimes live with the family.

The going rate for agency-placed nannies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley is $15 to $17 an hour, up from $12 just 18 months ago. Some nannies earn $18 to $20 an hour.

Professional candidates, including former teachers and people with graduate degrees in childhood education, are becoming the norm.

Town and Country Resources, a nanny placement agency in Palo Alto, recently placed a nanny in a Hillsborough home where she will make almost $70,000 for a 50-hour week, sharing the care of three children with another nanny.

Such salaries dwarf those in other parts of the country, such as Kansas City, Mo., where nannies receive $7 to $10 an hour.

The rising salaries of nannies south of San Francisco are pushing up pay for nannies in other parts of the Bay Area. Agencies north and east of the city say salaries have gone up 10% to 25% in the last six months, increasing pay to $10 to $15 an hour.

Parents are willing to pay. “We have overnight millionaires in this area, and some [people] just want the highest-caliber nanny,” said Daryl Camarillo, owner of Stanford Park Nannies of Menlo Park.

Said one Atherton father, “What’s more important than your kids?”