Do-it-yourself guides for hiring a nanny, paperwork, and the nanny tax

Nanny Cost Calculator

How much money will you have to pay for a nanny?

This calculator helps you answer the fundmental question: how much will you have to pay? Key in basic data like the hourly wage and get an estimate of how much you will have to pay per month and per year.

Put values into the required input fields (marked with an ✱) and optionally overwrite some default settings. Press the 'Calculate' button to perform the calculation.

Explore more information by pressing the question marks in the form.

The area of taxes is complicated and highly dependent on your current situation. The calculator below gives you an estimate of the cost that you can expect in many cases. For authorative rules, the IRS publishes this document about household employees.

On a mobile device, scroll to the right to enter data into the caclulator.

Description Rate Amount
Hourly wage in $ (✱)
Hours per week (✱)
Gross pay per week
Gross pay per month
Gross pay per year
Social Security employer per month 6.2 %
Medicare employer per month 1.45 %
Federal Unemployment per month 0.6 %
State Tax per month (e.g., State Unemployment)
Allowance per week in $
Total cost per week
Total cost per month
Total cost per year
Hourly wage.
This is how much you pay your nanny for one hour of work. What number to put into this field? We found that looking at care.com or craigslist.com is a good start to see what hourly rate nannies in your area are expecting.
Hours per week.
The number of hours in a week you want to employ your nanny. Please note that we will calculate the hours in a year by multiplying this number with the number of weeks in a year (52). This assumes that you will continue to pay your nanny during vacations (your own as well as his/hers). If you find a different agreement with your nanny during negotiation, you will have to be aware that the numbers the calculator gives you do not account for these off times.
Gross pay per week.
This is the number of hours per week multiplied with the hourly rate. Note that this is typically neither your full expense nor what the nanny will receive after paying taxes. When do you have to pay other items like federal and state taxes? Here is the IRS publication with all the details.
Gross pay per month.
The base pay for a month. Again, this is typically neither your full expense nor what your nanny will receive after taxes. The calculation for this number assumes that you pay your nanny every week of the year, and then breaks down this value on a per month basis. If you pay your nanny every month for the hours worked, expect some fluctuations here. Also, you might have negotiated with your nanny about your and her vacation days. This can reduce the amount that you actually will need to pay.
Gross pay per year.
The base pay for a year. Assumes that your nanny works the number of hours per week you specified for each of the 52 weeks in a year. This depends on the agreement you reached for vacation time. Again, this amount is typically neither your full expense nor what your nanny will receive after taxes. When do you have to pay other items like federal and state taxes? Here is the IRS publication with all the details.
Socaial Security employer per month
This is the employer part of the social security tax you have to pay for your household employee. For 2016, the employer part of the social security tax is 6.2% up to a certain limit. You typically need to pay this expense, but there are exceptions. Here is the IRS publication. with the details about when you are excluded.
Medicare employer per month
This is the employer part of the medicare tax you have to pay for your household employee. For 2016, the employer part of the medicare tax is 1.45%. You typically need to pay this expense, but there are exceptions. Here is the IRS publication with the details about when you are excluded.
Federal Unemployment per month.
This is what you need to pay for federal unemployment. Again, the exact rules are complicated. Here is the IRS publication. However, in most situations, you need to pay 0.6% for unemployment insurance for the first $7,000 you pay your nanny. This calculator assumes that you pay the nanny for the full year, and uses this amount as the basis to calculate what you need to pay per month. If you plan to employ your nanny for less than a year, the value stated here will be an overestimation. The federal unemployment tax you need to pay also depends on the state you live in. Go here to find more information about the specific rules of your state. (The link for Washington State does not work. Try this.
State Tax per month.
This depends very much on the state you live in. This calculator starts with a value of 1.14%, because this is what we had to pay in Washington State. Your state can handle this in different ways. For Washington State, which is the state we live in, the state sends you a note with the tax rate after you apply for your business. 1.14% was our rate for 2016.
Allowance per week.
When you employ a nanny, you might want her to take your children to the zoo, get food for your children when they are outside, or do other activities with your children that cost money. You will have to spend and account for that money.Be aware that there are specific rules when the money also covers food/drink for the nanny himself/herself. In this case, there might be tax implications that are described here.
Total cost.
The total cost per week, month, year sum up all the fields in the calculator. These are estimates of what you will have to expect to spending on your nanny. Keep in mind that these are estimates. Federal and state taxes and regulations are complicated, and things can vary based on your specific situation.