Content
4 min
Oct 8, 2026
Most families hiring a nanny are focused on finding someone they can trust with their children. What often catches them off guard is everything that comes with hiring them.
Do we need payroll? What should we pay? What happens when we go away and don't need our nanny? What can we ask them to help with around the house?
These questions are worth figuring out early because how you structure the job affects who you'll attract and how well the relationship works once you've hired someone.
Here's what I walk families through:
Your nanny should be paid through payroll
“Really? Everyone I know pays their nanny cash”.
If you've paid a babysitter directly for the occasional evening, hiring a nanny may not feel that different.
But when someone regularly works for your family and you determine their schedule and responsibilities, they will generally be considered your employee.
That means handling payroll deductions and contributions such as income tax, CPP and EI, and issuing a T4.
Families don't need to become a payroll expert to employ a nanny. Most use a payroll service to handle the calculations, deductions and remittances for them.
And your nanny benefits too. Their income is properly documented, which helps when applying for a rental, mortgage or loan, and they're paying into programs like CPP and EI.
Pay a rate that makes the job sustainable
"Is $25/hour good for my nanny role?"
$25/hour is where we start, but the right rate depends on the role.
Where you live matters, as does your children's ages, schedule, responsibilities and the experience you're looking for. More specific requirements, whether it's infant experience, an ECE, another language, a driver's licence or specialized experience, can come with a higher rate.
Experienced nannies have built careers too: gaining skills, taking on more responsibility and working their way up in compensation. They'll be looking for a rate that reflects that experience and makes the job sustainable long term.
If you want someone great to stay, the job has to provide an income they can build a life around.
If you expect your nanny to be available, guarantee the hours
“What about when we go on vacation?”
If you hire your nanny for 40 hours every week, they're relying on those 40 hours of income and keeping that time available for your family. If you take the kids away for a week or grandparents visit and you don't need childcare, your nanny should still receive their regular pay.
It's not paying for childcare you didn’t use, but reserving reliable childcare for your family.
This also means any unused guaranteed hours don’t carry over to the weekend or next week.
Be clear about household tasks
“What can our nanny help with around the house?”
A nanny can help with tasks that naturally come with caring for your children: children's laundry, preparing their meals and snacks, tidying children's spaces, organizing their belongings and cleaning up from the day.
Where problems arise is when there’s ambiguity. “Light housekeeping” can mean something completely different to each person. Deep-cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing toilets, cleaning the family car, or maintaining the pool and lawn aren't responsibilities for a nanny.
Be specific about what the job includes and make sure the expectations actually fit within the nanny’s day. A nanny caring for young children may have very little child-free time to complete a long list of household tasks.
You can't fill someone's hours with childcare and fill those same hours with housework.
If you need broader household support in addition to childcare, you may actually be looking for a nanny/family assistant. Those roles can include responsibilities beyond the children, but the job needs to provide the time and compensation for managing those tasks.
Make your part-time schedule work for a nanny, too
“Why am I having a hard time finding a part-time nanny?”
Sometimes the problem isn't the number of hours. It's where those hours fall.
A part-time nanny may need to combine your position with another job, which means a schedule that leaves full days or meaningful blocks of time available is often easier to fill than short or split shifts across the week.
The schedule that is most convenient for your family isn't always a schedule someone can build a job around.
For long-term placements, we generally look for at least 20 hours per week and shifts of around four consecutive hours or more.
If your needs don't naturally fit that structure, it doesn't mean the search can't work. It means we may need to design the role differently before we start looking.
Put what you’ve agreed to in writing
“What should be included in my nanny employment agreement?”
By the time your nanny starts, both of you should understand how the relationship is supposed to work.
A written employment agreement should cover the important terms you've agreed to from compensation, schedule and responsibilities to time off, expenses, driving and eventually ending the employment relationship.
It should also comply with the employment standards where you live.
At nannyhaus, families receive a ready-to-complete employment agreement designed around nanny employment and the details families don't always know they need to discuss.
A successful nanny search starts before you start searching
The job you create determines the candidate pool you get to choose from.
Compensation can widen or narrow it. So can your schedule. Responsibilities that make sense can attract experienced nannies; responsibilities that don't can turn them away. Guaranteed hours can make a position feel stable. Ambiguity can make an otherwise good job harder to say yes to.
That's why when I work with a family, I don't start by posting their job.
I start by making sure we have a job worth recruiting for.
Then we go find the nanny who wants it.
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