If you thought finding and interviewing a babysitter or nanny [1] was the hardest part of the sitter experience, it's not — finding the money to pay them can be way harder!
The babysitting network Urbansitter [2] released its 2019 National Childcare Rate Survey, and the average rates for babysitters might make you pause. In 2017, it conducted this survey and found that families were paying $16.89 an hour for sitters [3]. This year, it's significantly more.
The national average is $16.75 per hour for one child and $19.26 per hour for two kids. The most expensive city? Gulp — San Francisco, at $18.75 per hour for one child and $21.30 per hour for two kids. Las Vegas has the lowest babysitter rates at $11.63 per hour for one child and $14.71 per hour for two kids, so if you haven't settled down, you might want to seriously consider a move to the great state of Nevada.
To put those rates into perspective, UrbanSitter reminded us that the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. Based on that number, the average sitter can charge up to 231 percent more per hour!
