Your Guide to Modern Awards in Australia for Nannys

Understanding Minimum Wages for Nannys

It’s always useful to have a benchmark. Understanding the minimum awards for nannies in Australia is going to help you plan. It’ll also ensure you’re compliant with your legal obligations as an employer.

Remember that “minimum” means just that. You can’t go lower but there’s nothing to stop you from raising the bar if you think it might help attract or retain a nanny you have your eye on. Read on for all the info that’ll help you make some important decisions.

What Is the Minimum Wage for a Nanny in Australia?

In the majority of cases, you as the employer will be paying your nanny as an employee. There are minimum modern pay awards for nannies and au pairs just as there are for every worker in Australia.

Nannies fall under the Miscellaneous Award as set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). There are some dependencies that will have a bearing on the correct amount you should pay your nanny. These relate to:

• The age of your nanny
• Their experience
• How long they have worked for you
• Whether they are full or part-time

The FWO has an excellent tool that you can find here. It lets you work out the minimum you should be paying your nanny.

To give you an idea, let’s say your nanny is 21 years old in their first job, has been with you for more than 3 months and works full-time. The minimum pay awards will be:

• Hourly pay rate: $21.72   
• Weekly pay rate: $825.20

How Many Hours a Week Should I Expect My Nanny to Work?

The normal working week for a full-time nanny is 38 hours. You will have to pay your nanny overtime if you expect them to work above that and if they have agreed to do so.

Nannies can refuse to work overtime if it is unreasonable. This could be due to circumstances in which they would feel unsafe or when the notice period was too short, for example.

Full-time Maximum Hours

• 10 hours per day (unless by agreement)
• Average of 38 hours per week
• 6 days per week
• 20 days over a 28 day period

Part-time Maximum Hours

• 10 hours in 1 day
• less than 38 hours in a week

When work is full-time, you can create a roster that averages hours over more than a week. That could mean that your nanny works 48 hours one week and 28 the next, for example.

When work is part-time, your nanny must have at least 2 hours of work in a row on any one day.

Overtime, Weekend and Public Holiday Hourly Rates

Let’s assume your nanny is the same age and has been with you for the same length of time as above. You will need to pay your nanny in the following circumstances and at these differing rates for hours worked:

• Overtime rate for the first 3 hours: $32.58 per hour
• Overtime rate after 3 hours: $43.44 per hour
• Monday-Friday between 7 pm and 7 am: $26.06 per hour
• Saturday: $26.06 per hour
• Sunday: $32.58 per hour
• Public Holidays: $54.30 per hour

More about Public Holidays

These may vary in date depending on where you live. Your nanny has an entitlement to these days off as paid leave if they work full or part-time.

You can ask your nanny to work on public holidays. Regardless of how long they work, you will have to pay them for at least 4 hours of work.

What About Annual Leave?

Both full and part-time nannies get a minimum of 4 weeks of annual paid leave, based on their ordinary hours of work.

You may have to pay your nanny an extra week of paid leave if you roster them to work on Sundays or public holidays. You can find out more about annual leave here.

What Happens if I Wish to Terminate My Nanny’s Employment?

If you want to cut short your nanny’s contract you will have to give them written notice. There is an exception and that is if your reason relates to serious misconduct. This could be something like:

• Causing serious and imminent risk to the health or safety of another person
• Sexual harassment, fraud, assault or theft
• A refusal to carry out a reasonable instruction that’s part of the job

You must make sure that you’re up to date on all payments and benefits up to your nanny’s last day at work. This applies to all cases ie: it doesn’t matter why you are choosing to terminate the contract.

You could decide to pay your nanny off instead of having them work a notice period.

If you do this, what you pay them must be at least the same as what they would have received had they continued to work.

Help Is at Hand!

We know that getting to grips with minimum awards for nannies along with contracts, payslips and the correct pay rates can be bewildering. We’re the nanny payroll experts and will handle all this kind of admin for you.

Get in touch with Pay the Nanny now to find out how we can help you.