UPPER EAST SIDE — The majority of Upper East Siders do not pay for their nanny's health insurance, but the few who do pay top dollar, according to a DNAinfo survey.
Roughly 93 percent of the 121 parents who took the survey said they don't cover health insurance costs for their nannies, including resident Pam Walden who said it would be too expensive to pay for benefits on top of her nanny's weekly $700 salary.
Walden's nanny, who was hired two months ago, opted to get covered under the Affordable Care Act, Walden said.
"It would be definitely a lot of money, but with Obamacare, nannies can get insurance anyway," she said. "I think it's a lot of money to pay, but at the same time, everybody should have insurance."
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93 percent of parent's don't pay insurance for their nannies.
Others who said they provide health insurance, pay from $5,000 to $7,800 a year, with a couple of outliers.
What some parents say they pay each year for their nanny's insurance:
In addition, Upper East Siders, or about 72 percent of them, said they tend to pay their nannies off the books, and the survey shows that they generally pay less than residents on the Upper West Side.
About 63 percent of those surveyed said they pay their children's caretakers weekly and almost half of them pay $15 to $20 an hour.
Nannies who take an annual salary usually get paid $35,000 to $50,000, and almost a quarter of them make $50,000 to $75,000, the survey shows.
Nanny specialist Limor Weinstein said it's not common for parents to pay insurance for their nannies, but those who do are usually paying on the books and treat their nannies as official employees.
Other benefits like vacation days are more likely. Most Upper East Side parents give their nannies at least 10 days off and two to five sick days, the survey results show.
Weinstein said parents on the Upper East Side will give at most two weeks of vacation and offer other perks like a Starbucks gift card, food or birthday gifts.
"Some nannies have burnout," she said. "If you have somebody good, you want to do everything you can to keep them happy."
