Charge either a percentage of the nanny's first year gross compensation, most commonly somewhere in the mid to high teens, or a flat fee sized to the same outcome. Those are the two structures the market understands, and a family who has worked with an agency before will expect one of them. What matters far more than the number you pick is what you attach it to, when it becomes due, and what you promise to do if the placement fails in month three.
A boutique agency placing a full time live out nanny in a metro market is usually looking at a compensation package somewhere between $55,000 and $95,000 a year once you count guaranteed hours. At 15 percent that is a fee of $8,250 to $14,250. At 18 percent it is $9,900 to $17,100. A flat fee agency in the same market might quote $9,500 for a standard weekday role and $13,500 for a role with travel or infant specialization. Those brackets are illustrative, not survey data, but the arithmetic is the arithmetic and you can substitute your own market's wage range in thirty seconds.
The real work is defending the number. Below is how each structure is built, what has to be inside your definition of compensation, where the deposit sits, and how the guarantee you offer quietly sets a floor under everything else.
The two dominant fee structures: percentage of annual gross versus flat fee
A percentage fee indexes your revenue to the role. Place a nanny at $28 an hour for 45 guaranteed hours and your fee rises automatically compared to a $22 an hour role, without you renegotiating anything. It also aligns you with the family's own sense of proportion: a bigger job costs more to fill, and everyone can see why.
The weakness is disclosure. A percentage fee requires the family to tell you the real compensation, and it requires you to define compensation tightly enough that nobody argues later. It also invites a specific bad behavior: a family quietly agrees a lower hourly rate on paper and tops the nanny up in cash. You are then billing on a fiction.
A flat fee removes that argument entirely. You quote $11,000 for a full time live out placement, the family knows the cost before you open the search, and no one asks what the nanny is really being paid. It is simpler to sell and simpler to invoice. It is also blind: the same $11,000 covers the straightforward two school age children role and the newborn twins role with a night component, and one of those will take you four times the hours.
Most boutique agencies land in a hybrid. A percentage with a stated minimum, or a flat fee schedule with tiers, gives you the predictability of a flat number and the upside on the harder roles.
A tiered flat schedule that actually holds
| Role type | Typical weekly hours | Illustrative flat fee |
|---|---|---|
| Full time live out, school age | 40 to 45 | $9,500 |
| Full time live out, infant or twins | 45 to 50 | $12,500 |
| Live in, private quarters | 45 to 55 | $13,500 |
| Newborn care specialist, short term | varies, 8 to 16 weeks | day rate model, see below |
| Household manager or nanny hybrid | 45 to 50 | $14,000 |
Publish the tiers. A family that can see where their role sits stops asking whether they are being quoted more than the neighbor.
Keep reading: How do I run a background check on a nanny candidate without breaking the FCRA?
What counts as gross compensation when you calculate the percentage
If you run a percentage, this section is your fee schedule's load bearing wall. Write it out in plain terms and put it in the family agreement, not in an email.
- Guaranteed hourly wage times guaranteed weekly hours times 52. Use guaranteed hours, not "usually about." Guaranteed hours are the number the nanny is paid for whether or not the family uses them.
- Overtime at the contracted rate for any regularly scheduled hours above 40 in a week. A 45 hour role is 40 straight plus 5 at time and a half, which is not the same as 45 straight.
- Guaranteed annual bonus, if one is written into the work agreement. A discretionary holiday bonus is not.
- Cash allowances the nanny receives: a monthly car allowance, a health insurance stipend paid as wages, a gym or phone allowance.
Exclude mileage reimbursement at the standard rate, the family's employer share of payroll taxes, and the value of a live in room. Include or exclude a family provided vehicle, but say which, in writing, before the search starts.
The overtime arithmetic families forget
Take a $28 base rate at 45 guaranteed hours. Weekly gross is 40 times $28, which is $1,120, plus 5 times $42, which is $210. Total $1,330 a week, or $69,160 a year. A family thinking in round numbers will tell you the role pays "twenty eight an hour, about sixty five thousand." At 16 percent the difference between $65,000 and $69,160 is $666 in your fee. Small on one placement, real across a year, and worth getting right on the first call rather than the invoice.
Where the retainer or registration deposit sits and how it is credited
A retainer does two jobs. It pays for the front end of the search, and it filters out families who are browsing. Boutique agencies commonly take $500 to $1,500, credited in full against the placement fee when a nanny starts.
Decide and state three things. First, whether the retainer is refundable, and under what conditions. The cleanest position: nonrefundable once you present the first qualified candidate, because that is the point at which your labor is spent. Second, how long it holds the search open. Ninety days is a reasonable window, with a written extension if the family pauses. Third, whether it credits against a replacement search later or expires with the original placement.
Keep reading: Should I place nannies as household employees or can a family treat them as contractors?
Temporary, part time, and short term placements priced on a different basis
A percentage of annual gross makes no sense for a twelve week newborn care engagement or a two day a week after school role. Price those separately.
- Part time permanent: percentage of the actual annualized gross, with a stated minimum fee. A 20 hour role at $25 is $26,000 a year; 16 percent is $4,160, and your minimum might be $4,500 because the search work barely shrinks with the hours.
- Temporary placement you payroll yourself: a markup on the hourly rate, typically 35 to 60 percent depending on whether you carry workers compensation and payroll costs. Bill the family $42 for a nanny you pay $28.
- Temp to perm: a conversion fee if the family hires the temp directly, often reduced by a credit for hours already billed through you.
- Newborn care specialist: a flat booking fee, or a percentage of the projected engagement value, invoiced at contract signing rather than at start.
Replacement guarantee length and how it constrains your pricing
The guarantee is the part of your fee schedule that costs you money, so price it deliberately. A 90 day guarantee means one free replacement search if the nanny leaves or is terminated for cause inside 90 days. Some agencies offer six months, a few offer a year on live in roles.
Model it. If you place 30 nannies a year and 4 of them fail inside the guarantee window, you run 34 searches to earn 30 fees. Your effective fee is your quoted fee times 30 divided by 34, roughly 88 percent of the sticker. If your guarantee is a year and 7 fail, you run 37 searches for 30 fees, about 81 percent. Extending the guarantee from 90 days to 12 months on a $11,000 fee costs you around $770 per placement in that illustration. Either price it in or keep the shorter window.
Attach conditions the family can meet: a signed work agreement, payment of the fee in full, wages paid legally, and prompt written notice of the separation. Exclude relocation, a material change in the job description, and a household that never signed the work agreement you drafted.
See how NannyMatchDesk handles this for nanny and household staffing agencies
What the fee has to cover before you see margin
Walk a single $11,000 placement through your own costs. Background screening through a consumer reporting agency plus a motor vehicle record: $75 to $200 per finalist, and you may screen three. Reference calls: four to six per finalist at 20 to 30 minutes each. Job board and social advertising for the role. Your interviewing time, family intake, candidate presentation, trial day coordination, offer negotiation, and work agreement drafting.
Twenty five to forty hours of skilled labor on a filled search is normal, and unfilled searches consume hours with no fee at all. Add your placement failures from the guarantee model, your software, insurance, and the placements that die at offer. A fee that looks generous next to a single week of the nanny's wages looks ordinary next to your fully loaded cost of filling one seat.
Presenting the fee schedule in the family agreement so it survives a dispute
Put the whole structure in one signed document, not spread across a website page, a proposal email, and a verbal promise. It should state the fee basis and the exact definition of gross compensation, the retainer amount and its credit and refund terms, the invoice trigger and payment due date, the guarantee length with its conditions and exclusions, the direct hire clause covering candidates you introduced, and a late payment term.
The direct hire clause matters more than owners expect. Name a window, commonly 12 months from introduction, during which a family who hires a candidate you presented owes the fee whether or not the hire came through you. Have the family sign before you send the first resume, and log the date you sent it.
Where to go from here
Pick one structure, write the compensation definition, model your guarantee against last year's actual failures, and rebuild your agreement around all three. Then make the schedule live in the same place as the search.
NannyMatchDesk holds the fee terms on the placement record itself, so the retainer, the credit, the guarantee clock, and the signed family agreement travel with the search instead of sitting in a folder. When a nanny resigns in week ten, you can see in one screen whether the guarantee applies, what was paid, and which conditions the family met.
