Babysitter rates

What It Means

Babysitter rates are what families pay someone to watch their children for a few hours at a time, usually by the hour. Care.com's 2026 Cost of Care Report puts the average rate parents posted for babysitters at $19.81 an hour nationally. Your own number depends on where you live and what the job involves, so a national average works best as a starting point for the conversation.

How People Say It at Work

• "What do you pay your sitter these days?"
• "She charges twenty an hour, and we drive her home."
• "Can you watch the kids Saturday? Same rate as last time."

The Breakdown

Worked example. A family books a sitter three Saturday nights a month, four hours each, at $20 an hour. The numbers are made up for the example.

What the result means. At $20 an hour this family sits just above Care.com's 2026 national average posted rate of $19.81. For a wider view, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median hourly wage for childcare workers as a whole at $16.82 in May 2025. At under 3 hours a week, this sitter is well inside the 20-hour line the Labor Department uses for casual babysitting.

What to agree on before the first night. Settle the hourly rate, whether it changes with more children or a late finish, how you'll handle a ride home, and whether any cleaning or cooking is part of the job. Local rates can differ from the national average, so ask a few families nearby what they pay.

Good to Know

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, babysitting on a casual basis is exempt from federal minimum wageMinimum wageThe lowest hourly pay the law allows an employer to pay; the federal minimum is $7.25 an hour, and a higher state or local rate wins where one applies. See more and overtime, according to the Department of Labor's domestic service rules at 29 CFR Part 552. The department treats babysitting as casual when it usually adds up to 20 hours a week or less across every family the sitter works for, or when the extra hours are irregular. If a sitter spends more than 20 percent of an assignment on household work, the exemption doesn't apply to that assignment. Your state labor department can tell you whether state wage rules add anything. If you pay one sitter a lot over a year, IRS Publication 926, the Household Employer's Tax Guide, sets out when household employment taxesNanny taxThe federal employment taxes a family owes when it pays a nanny or other household employee enough cash wages in a year, reported on Schedule H. See more apply and gives the current year's wage threshold.

Related Terms and Categories

• Nanny salary

  What a family pays a nanny, usually quoted by the hour or week. Care.com's 2026 report puts the US average at $21.75 an hour for one child.

• Nanny tax

  The federal employment taxes a family owes when it pays a nanny or other household employee enough cash wages in a year, reported on Schedule H.

• Household employee

  A worker you hire to do household work, such as a nanny or housekeeper, when you control both what work they do and how they do it.

• Minimum wage

  The lowest hourly pay the law allows an employer to pay; the federal minimum is $7.25 an hour, and a higher state or local rate wins where one applies.

Pay, rates and costs