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SURVEY: Many Upper West Side Nannies Earn More Than the Average New Yorker

By Emily Frost | March 16, 2016 8:50am

UPPER WEST SIDE — Some local parents are paying their nannies upward of $75,000 a year — well above the average salaries of New Yorkers, according to DNAinfo's recent nanny survey.

DNAinfo New York asked local parents about common practices when it comes to hiring a nanny in the neighborhood — with nearly a quarter of the respondents saying they pay their caretakers between $50,000 and $75,000 per year.

That's compared to the average citywide salary of $53,341, according to 2013 data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Community Survey that was weighted to reflect the populations of each borough. 

Of the 50 people who shared their nanny's annual salary in the survey, half reported paying between $35,000 and $50,000 a year, while 24 percent of respondents said they pay their nannies between $50,000 and $75,000.

At the low and high ends, 14 percent pay their nannies between $25,000 and $35,000 a year, while 8 percent paid their nannies $75,000 or more. Four percent of respondents didn't list what they pay.

While the survey's high-end salaries didn't match average yearly wages in Manhattan ($103,615), they were still better than the averages in Brooklyn ($37,769 per year), Queens ($44,291), The Bronx ($44,367) and Staten Island ($37,450), according to the 2013 census data.

As of Monday, 160 people had responded to the survey, with nearly 90 percent of those living on the Upper West Side or Morningside Heights. 

Additionally, 150 survey respondents broke down their nannies' pay by the hour, with 51 percent paying between $15 and $20 an hour, and 23 percent paying $20 or more per hour. Nineteen percent of respondents reported paying less than $15 an hour.


More than two-thirds of parents surveyed admitted to paying their nannies "off the books," meaning they aren't registering as an employer and paying their caretakers' unemployment, Social Security or workmen's compensation taxes. 

Out of 150 respondents, 69 percent said they paid off the books, while only 31 percent paid on the books.

Yearly raises were fairly common among parents, with 64 percent of 149 survey respondents saying they gave them.

Sixty-four percent of parents raised their nannies salaries annually by $1 per hour, while 8 percent raised it by $2, according to 89 survey respondents. Twenty-eight percent of respondents chose "other" to describe the annual raises they gave.


If you'd like to fill out the survey, which is anonymous and quick, you can find it here. 

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