Hourly Rates for Nannies in Australia 2023

For the most up to date rates, check out our most recent guide here.

Find Out About Australia's Nanny Pay Rate in 2023

One of the biggest considerations when hiring a nanny is likely to be the cost. It’s a concern close to the hearts of many Australians as we all grapple with the spiralling cost of living.

You may have a clear idea of the number of nanny hours you need, so you’ll want to know if your budget matches your wishlist. There’s no point in finding the next Mary Poppins only to discover that her nanny pay rate is out of your price range.

If you’re wondering, “How much to pay my nanny,” read on. Find out about the average nanny wage in Australia, along with everything you need to know about the nanny payroll services that’ll help keep you compliant. 

Your Guide to Hourly Rates For Nannies in Australia

We’ve carried out our own research to help you budget accordingly. Here are the typical hourly rates for nannies that you need to know about:

• Minimum: approx $25.00 (or the actual Miscellaneous Award)
• Average  $32.66
• Maximum $45

A lot can happen in a year, especially when it comes to the average hourly rate a nanny may expect you to pay them. Rising inflation and a shortage of workers in the childcare sector are trends that are shining a huge spotlight on our budgets.

Nannies fall under the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Miscellaneous Award umbrella. The minimum hourly rate at Level 1 under this award rose to $21.38 on July 1st 2022. That’s an increase of just over 5 per cent compared to 2021. The Level 4 rate rose to $27.02 from $25.83, an increase of around 4.6 per cent.

However, these are minimum rates. Just because you could pay your nannies at the lower end of the pay scale doesn’t mean you should. And, even if you wanted to do so, the chances are you’d find it very tough to recruit and retain at these kinds of nanny pay rates for a whole host of reasons.

Pressure Points Facing Employers and Employees

“Nanny demand hits a high,” screamed one recent Australian headline and the Australian Nanny Association drew this conclusion not so long ago about the current situation for families needing childcare, “We are experiencing a huge labour shortage in our workforce with many families and agencies expressing difficulty in sourcing nannies.”

The headline consumer price index (CPI) for the first 3 months of 2023 hovered at an annual rate of around 7 per cent. That’s according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For Millennials, the kinds of hikes in prices they’ve been experiencing are not what they’d become used to. The cost of living in Australia seems to be getting more expensive by the day.

Stories of families giving up their pets because they can't afford to feed them along with a surge in demand for foodbanks make for painful reading with extensive coverage in the international press. 

Number Crunching an Average Nanny Wage

So what can we extrapolate from the 2023 nanny pay rates when compared to 2022?

There have been sharp increases in the average and maximum hourly rates. An average nanny wage is almost 10 per cent higher and the maximum rate a nanny can now command is almost a third higher than it was a year or so ago.

Given the current global economic difficulties, it’s perhaps not such a great surprise. Demand is outstripping supply. Throw in a somewhat unpalatable inflation rate and there’s a perfect storm that’s generating a lot of stress for many ordinary families.

Understanding Hourly Rates for Nannies

All this makes it all the more important to have a very clear picture of how pay rates work. It's worth bearing in mind that multiplying a nanny’s hourly rate by the number of hours you need them is not going to give you the whole, true picture.

For example, the hourly rates will increase when your nanny works overtime or on a Public Holiday. The Fair Work Ombudsman can give you a breakdown but let’s say you agree to a rate of $30.00 per hour with your nanny. You would then need to pay them:

• Time and a half or $45.00 per hour for the first 3 hours of overtime
• Double time or $60.00 per hour for overtime after the first 3 hours
• $36.00 per hour for any overtime between 1900 and 0700
• $36.00 per hour for working on Saturdays
• $45.00 per hour for working on Sundays
• $75.00 per hour for working on Public holidays

There are also certain allowances that your nanny may have an entitlement to. These include first aid, meal and vehicle allowances.

You may, for example, have to pay your nanny around $0.80 per km if you have an agreement that they use their vehicle to pick up and drop off the kids at school. In these circumstances, you should check your nanny’s car insurance policy to make absolutely sure it covers your kids in case there’s an accident.

There will be other related costs involved too. These include:

• Paid leave and sick pay
• Superannuation contributions
• Workers’ Compensation Insurance
• Car insurance for your nanny if you want them to drive your vehicle

Other Dependencies Related to Hourly Rates 

As a general rule, a more experienced nanny is going to be able to command a higher hourly rate. On top of this, other factors may have an impact on how much you will have to pay. They include:

• The geographical location where you live
• The age of the child or children concerned
• The level of qualifications your nanny has
• Your nanny’s life experience and maturity
• Having a driver’s licence
• The demand for nannies in your area or region

In the vast majority of cases, a nanny will be your employee. Occasionally and under certain circumstances, your nanny may be a casual worker or contractor. It’s important to seek professional advice about nanny payroll Australia to ensure you’re going to be paying your nanny correctly. 

Super and workers' comp at the usual rates both need paying however you employ your nanny. The ATO says that if you're mainly paying contractors for their labour, for superannuation guarantee (SG) purposes, they are employees. The ATO also makes clear that it makes no difference if the contractor has an Australian business number (ABN).

If your nanny is an independent contractor they will declare their income to the ATO and pay their taxes independently, usually by putting money aside each month. They will not have the same entitlement to holiday and sick leave as an employee.

To compensate for this, they will expect a higher hourly rate. The "casual loading" figure is usually 25 per cent on top of what a fully-fledged, permanent part or full-time employee would expect to receive as a basic hourly rate.

Associated Costs That Come With Employing a Nanny

Employees have every right to expect that their employers are going to pay them on time, give them a payslip and take care of their taxes. Nannies will therefore hold you to the same standards that would apply to any business that employs a worker.

Holiday Pay and Sick Leave

Full-time and part-time employees in Australia have an entitlement to four weeks of paid annual leave. You would need to base their leave on their ordinary hours of work. For example, if they have a contract with you to work 20 hours a week, they would have an entitlement to 80 hours of holiday pay per year.

You can find out more about issues related to leave entitlement here.

All employees in Australia except casuals have an entitlement to paid sick and carer’s leave. Again, families must base their nanny’s annual entitlement on ordinary hours of work. The leave works out at 10 days for full-time employees and pro-rata for part-time employees.

You can find out more about sick and carer’s leave entitlements here.

Superannuation Explained

In Australia, superannuation or super is the name we use for retirement pension benefit funds. Recent changes mean, you need to pay super guarantee contributions to your nanny's super fund no matter how much you pay them.

The current rate of superannuation is 10.5 per cent of your nanny’s gross wage. It will rise to 11 per cent on July 1st 2023. You can find out more here about Super.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

WorkCover’s been a one-size-fits-all term that refers to Workers’ Compensation across Australia. Recent changes in some areas may also mean the name we call it could now vary.

Workers' Compensation is a compulsory statutory type of insurance that applies to every employer in Australia. It offers protection to workers in the event that they suffer a work-related injury or disease.

The regulation of Workers’ Comp varies between each state and territory. You can find out more about the Workers’ Comp schemes where you live here:

• New South Wales
• Queensland
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Victoria
• Western Australia
• Australian Capital Territory
• Northern Territory

How Much to Pay My Nanny?

Making sure everything’s above board when employing a nanny takes a lot of time and effort. This can be hard on busy parents who are already juggling a career and managing economic squeezes.

Pay the Nanny has a team of qualified accountants and financial and taxation specialists. We’ll help you understand the average nanny wage and hourly rate for a nanny.

For one low and affordable monthly fee, let Pay the Nanny sort out all the admin connected to paying your nanny, from taxes to super and Workers’ Comp. For the time and stress that you’ll save, it’s a small price for getting nanny payroll in Australia sorted.