Assistant wage?

[migimoo]

I may need to take on an assistant in the summer, my friend has offered to do it but I was wondering how much to pay her per hour? What do those of you with assistants pay them?

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Mine are self employed and then all the responsibility is their with regards to tax and NI but they must be free to look for work elsewhere

[MrAnchovy]

I recommend that you take professional advice before taking on anyone as self employed. If you don't, two bad things can happen:

• They can take you to an employment tribunal for holiday pay, notice pay, maternity pay, redundancy pay etc. The employment tribunal will base its decision on many factors other than the ability to work elsewhere; decisions in cases similar to the way childminders assistants work are almost always that the person is an employee.
• HMRC can persue you for income tax and national insurance based on their grossed-up earnings. HMRC use different criteria than are used by an employment tribunal which are even more likely to prove that a childminders assistant is an employee for tax purposes.

At the very least you should use HMRC's Employment Status Tool and if there is any doubt get a written ruling from HMRC's Status Customer Service Team.

[pillows]

Hi I employ an assistant I pay her £7 per hour , and then of course you need to take into consideration the employers NI contributions and also holiday pay which is 5.6 weeks per year and also lots of other factors to be taken into consideration . hope that helps