Holiday pay

[EmiB]

I am just starting out I have a first visit coming up and trying to get everything in order! When it comes to holidays I have heard that you can charge when parent takes holiday but don't charge when you as childminder takes holiday....does anyone do this? Any advice/tips would be much appreciated!

[FussyElmo]

Its entirely down to you.

There is no right or wrong way :)

Some cms charge full for parent holiday and nothing for theirs.
Some charge full for both parents and cm holidays.
Some charge half price for both.

[tess1981]

I charge full fee for my holidays 26 days per year and if parents take different holidays it is full fee also.
my holidays are the same every year... one week in july one in august 2 at christmas 2 days at easter st. patricks day and the bank holidays in may..

i work hard all year and dont feel guilty any more taking paid holidays... although fees in N.Ireland are alot lower than England... most childminders over here get paid holidays its the norm

what ever you feel comfortable with but parents may end up taking extra holidays (while really granny has child) to save paying you so bear that in mind
if you are not charging for holidays set a limit of days for parents eg 10 days in the year or 15... its 2-3 weeks

[loocyloo]

I charge if I am available to work, and I don't charge if I am on holiday! I generally give out a list of my holiday dates in the January - usually a week around Easter, 2 weeks start of august and a week around Christmas & new year. plus I take a few other days as and when needed. ( I give as much notice as possible of these )

however ... in saying I don't charge, what I in fact did last year was to put my fees up. i worked out what half fees for the 4 weeks i take as holiday were, and added them to the normal fee, so they ARE paying half fees when I am on holiday but as i don't charge them, they feel they are getting a good deal.
ie ... £4/hr x 48 weeks = £192. £2/hr x 4 weeks = £8. £192+£8 = £ 200 / 48 (weeks) = £4.16 ... so charging £4.15hr gives me more or less half fees for holidays ( as long as i remember to save it! )

[rickysmiths]

I am just starting out I have a first visit coming up and trying to get everything in order! When it comes to holidays I have heard that you can charge when parent takes holiday but don't charge when you as childminder takes holiday....does anyone do this? Any advice/tips would be much appreciated!

It is up to you what you do. Pacey recommended some years ago that we should charge for our holiday as well.

I have always charged for the parents holiday because I am still here and I have to keep their space open. I charge half fee for my holiday so in effect I charge for 49.5 weeks a year.

You have to be very careful if you allow parents free holiday or half fee holiday that you limit the number of weeks I have heard of parents arranging for family and friends to help out and taking many weeks off.

I would go broke if I allowed the parents free holiday and then didn't charge for mine. I have given my parents all my holiday dates for this year so they can plan ahead and I find that parents try and go away when I am away and these days they often have more holiday than me as well.

[wee_elf]

sorry for hijacking the thread but can I ask how many weeks a year everyone takes? x

[tigwig]

I now take 6 weeks per yr. Used to be 4 but its gradually increased lol. I no longer charge for them. Used to charge half fees when it was 4 weeks. I charge full fees for parents though. I also have 2 sets of teachers so 4 weeks of my hols are in the school hols and don't effect them. All other children are part time. I think if circumstances were different I probably wouldn't take quite so much time off! Only you can decide whats going to work for you and your parents of course :)

[Macca3437]

I charge full fee when the parents are on holiday. There's no fee when I am on holiday. I put on the contract, that I will take up to 6 weeks. This hasn't happened yet, but I am working on it lol.
Although I think I should start charging for the reactions of the parents, when I am informing them of my holiday (priceless) I wouldn't mind, but I always give them loads of notice. Much more than they give me arghhhhh.

[gef918]

I charge full fee for parents holiday and nothing for mine. However, in school holidays, when I like to be quieter, I only charge 30% of fee for parents holiday if given 4 weeks notice.

[smurfette]

I charge full fee for parents holiday and nothing for mine. However, in school holidays, when I like to be quieter, I only charge 30% of fee for parents holiday if given 4 weeks notice.
This is a good idea! Would Love To do term
Time only and can't afford it but this might be a good compromise Next year!

[gef918]

This is a good idea! Would Love To do term
Time only and can't afford it but this might be a good compromise Next year!

It's a recent change to my policy. Previously I charged no fee if holidays taken in school holidays. However, I now want to have more income during the holidays. Therefore, I feel a bit guilty that I'm charging anything, even though it's probably a better deal than parents could get elsewhere :(

[Macca3437]

I charge full fee for parents holiday and nothing for mine. However, in school holidays, when I like to be quieter, I only charge 30% of fee for parents holiday if given 4 weeks notice.

Is that for all school holidays? Half terms and summer etc?

[Blueeyedminder]

I charge full pay for parent holidays
I take 4 weeks full pay holiday and 1/2 weeks unpaid holiday

[gef918]

Is that for all school holidays? Half terms and summer etc?

Yes, all school holidays, except for bank holidays which I don't work, so no fee.

[wee_elf]

Thanks for the replies :). I would ideally prefer to work term time only, but was thinking of having six weeks holiday (which I wouldn't charge for) if not, but wasn't sure if this would be unreasonable or not xx

[Jelly Baby]

I charge half for mine and the same for parents BUT the family I make the most money out of has I think clicked onto this and started getting 'granny' etc to have the kids so I lose out in a way. They also take a lot of holiday (last year 8 weeks) so I am going to start limiting it but not sure to how much so will read this thread with interest.

[buzzy bee]

I used to do this but found I never took any holiday because I couldn't justify missing the income. And parents always sent the kids even when they had a day off because they were paying me so they might as well have a day to themselves.

So I changed it to half fees for their holiday and half fees for mine. It works better for me this way because I'm not losing so much income for time off, so I take more time off (which I neeeeeeddd!!) and parents are less likely to send kids when they have days off work, because they can save a bit of money if they don't send them.

So in the long run I get more time off plus the parents all seem much happier with the new policy. They end up paying less over the year because we both take more holiday. And I end up more rested :thumbsup: