Nanny Jobs Provide a Steady Source of Income, Yet Promise Little in the Way of Advancement
Below are some interesting thoughts found in the Huffington Post by Rebecca Carroll comparing nannies today with the movie "The Help." Click here to see entire article.
I have met a handful of six-figure nannies. Yep, there are a few in-home childcare providers that make $100,000 per year. Despite a college degree and 18-years nanny experience, I'm still not one of those nannies.
As I read this article in the Huffington Post I wonder if it's true what Enobong Hannah Branch, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst says,"The expectation of the [nanny] job grows, but the salary does not."
I'm paid well, but didn't get a cost-of-living raise at my four-year Nanny-Versary. I did get raises other years and a ten-percent increase with the birth of the family's newborn. I am not complaining since I make a good salary and for a lovely family with great kids. But, the sociologists comments do make me wonder: Do nanny salaries eventually cap-out? How much can we ever actually expect to make? Is there really any room for advancement?
Here are some highlights of the article:
The high-profile success of the movie "The Help" has thrust nannies into the center of the American conversation, while projecting the notion that taking care of other people's children amounts to a viable early-stage career opportunity, the first step on the pathway to better things.
But this comes as news to real-life nannies encountered this week in the affluent New York City neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where women described their work as just that: a basic job in an American economy that does not have enough of them.
Despite the mythologies surrounding the life of nannies, their jobs operate at the intersection of the American underground economy and the homes of wealthier people. Many are employed by white collar professionals who work for major corporations, yet most are paid under the table, without health benefits. In an economy marked by high unemployment, nanny jobs continue to provide a steady source of income for thousands of women, yet these positions promise little in the way of advancement and are rife with exploitation, say labor experts.
"These jobs are not good jobs," said Enobong Hannah Branch, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and author of the forthcoming book "Opportunity Denied: Limiting Black Women to Devalued Work." "They are not jobs that are above the table, with set hours, clear expectations, health insurance, vacation, a process for grievances."
In New York, a law passed by the state legislature last year officially extended myriad labor protections to domestic workers. But many nannies working in the more gentrified areas of New York City are undocumented immigrants from the Caribbean, and many employers pay under the table and are reluctant to renegotiate that arrangement.
Click here to see entire article.
