I was formerly a Nanny. It’s a profession that is not always as respected as it should be and parents often seem to forget we aren’t just their caregiver, but we are their employee.
The biggest mistake was not starting with a contract. I agreed to $20/hr and 35 hours/week for one 3 year old girl and ‘light housekeeping.’ That quickly turned into coming in daily to both sides of the kitchen sink overflowing and a filthy house, with their child in the same pajamas for days. Admittedly I cannot stand a dirty house and always cleaned more than was agreed upon for my own sanity. These people had cleaners coming twice a month but would never do any of their own cleaning in between. The cleaning lady and I used to always talk shit.
After the first month I sat them down and told them we needed a contract. There was confusion over my work schedule, job duties and pay rate. They agreed to guaranteed hours, one week of PTO, 16 hours of sick pay and $22/hr with an increase to $24/hr after MB had their baby boy a few months later. I also took on doing all of the children’s laundry and teaching their daughter better habits, like changing clothes daily and frequent bathing.
Things were honestly fine until they went on vacation and asked just prior to coming back that I work on a Saturday for no additional pay. I agreed in the contract to care for the dogs and do other household tasks while they were gone so I had already been working the whole time they were on vacation and coming to their house twice a day. I put my foot down and said my guaranteed hours were M-F and I wouldn’t work Saturday unless it was OT.
We needed to update the contract to include the baby so I sent them a revised contract. MB sent it back to me a week later with some crazy additions, like opening my availability up 7 days/week and having a varying schedule from month to month. No longer guaranteeing my hours but still expecting me to allot 2 hours daily to caring for their dogs whenever they were gone. Oh and the best one, if I failed to remain employed I would be responsible for the cost of airfare for a Vegas trip they had planned for me to join them and the kids on.
I told her I couldn’t agree to any of that and we agreed to terminate the contract early. There was a 4 week mutual notice clause and she said we could go longer or shorter depending on everyone’s needs. I gave then 4 weeks notice and I thought things would end cordially.
The following week they returned home late after I had worked over 10 hours that day. I confronted them about not ever getting paid for the additional time. Mom Boss responded ‘do you want freaking $2? What about all the times we let you off early.’ I said that’s what the guaranteed hours are for and I told them we could probably end the contract sooner since I was looking for jobs. They immediately flipped out about the Vegas trip the following week and started yelling and cussing at me. It was so unprofessional and happening right in front of the kids. I blurted out that I had to leave and dashed out the open front door.
Mom Boss fired me that night over text and said she was withholding pay for the plane ticket. When I got paid through payroll 2 days later it was short 20 worked hours and 4 PTO hours. I sent them a demand letter and they paid the 20 worked hours but withheld the PTO, which are considered wages in my state.
Mediation was court mandated but they refused to settle so we went on to Trial. The Judge upheld that they committed wage theft and owed penalties, as well as breach of contract damages and all of my court costs. The best part of it all was truly the Judges final remarks. They had to have walked out of there feeling 2 feet tall.
They brought a counterclaim stating I should be responsible for their Unemployment Tax increase (her appeal was denied by Unemployment.) The cost of the plane ticket ($640) and 6 hours ($250/hr) of her time gathering documents for court. The Judge dismissed their counterclaim entirely.
Stick up for yourselves always! This case was so important on principle alone. You are your best advocate and don’t you ever forget it.