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Pay, rates and costs

What care, help and services cost, with a dated figure and the source behind each one.

A

After-school program costWhat a family pays for care and activities in the hours after the school day ends, charged by the week, the month or the day.

B

Babysitter ratesWhat families pay a babysitter, usually by the hour. Care.com's 2026 Cost of Care Report puts the average posted rate at $19.81 an hour nationally.
Bookkeeper salaryThe pay of someone who keeps a business's financial records; BLS put the median for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $50,670 a year in May 2025.
Braces costWhat orthodontic treatment with braces costs a family, set by each orthodontist and often paid as a down payment plus monthly payments over 12 to 24 months.

C

Cost of collegeWhat a year of college costs, tuition and fees plus housing, food, books and travel; College Board's 2025-26 average budget at a public four-year college in-state is $30,990.
Cost of raising a childWhat a family spends on a child from birth through age 17; USDA's last estimate, for a child born in 2015, was $233,610 for a middle-income married couple.

D

Data entry payWhat data entry workers are paid to type information into computer systems; BLS put the median for data entry keyers at $19.88 an hour in May 2025.
Daycare costWhat families pay a child care center or home daycare, which Care.com's 2026 Cost of Care Report puts at $332 a week on average.
Doula costWhat a family pays a doula for nonmedical support during pregnancy, birth or the weeks after, set by each doula as a birth package, an hourly rate or both.

E

Executive assistant salaryThe pay of an assistant who supports a company's senior leaders; BLS put the median for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at $76,590 in May 2025.

F

Freelance ratesWhat a freelancer charges clients, usually by the hour or project, set high enough to cover their own costs and taxes as well as their pay.

H

Holiday tippingA year-end tip or gift for people who provide regular services, such as a babysitter, cleaner or newspaper carrier, guided by etiquette rather than any rule.
House cleaner costWhat you pay to have someone clean your home, quoted by the hour or as a flat price per visit, which is more than the cleaner's own hourly wage.
Household employeeA 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.
Housekeeper salaryThe pay a housekeeper earns for cleaning and keeping a home or rooms in order; BLS put the median for maids and housekeeping cleaners at $17.07 an hour in May 2025.

L

Laundry service costWhat you pay a business to wash, dry and fold your laundry or dry-clean it, priced by the pound, the bag or the item, sometimes with pickup and delivery.
Lawn care costWhat a household pays for mowing and other yard work over a season, often priced per visit plus extra jobs such as aeration or leaf cleanup.

M

Minimum 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.
Music lesson costWhat a family pays for music lessons, priced per lesson; BLS puts the median wage for self-enrichment teachers, music teachers among them, at $22.50 an hour in May 2025.

N

Nanny salaryWhat 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 share costWhat each family pays when two families share one nanny, which Care.com puts at about two-thirds of the cost of a nanny of your own.
Nanny 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.

P

Part-time job payWhat part-time workers earn; BLS put the median for part-time wage and salary workers at $386 a week in 2025.
Personal chef costWhat it costs to hire a cook to plan and make meals for your household, usually the cook's time plus the groceries.

R

Remote customer service payWhat customer service representatives earn when they work from home; BLS put the median for all customer service representatives at $21.53 an hour in May 2025.

S

Social media manager salaryThe pay of someone who runs a company's social media accounts; PayScale's June 2026 data puts the average US base salary at $60,881 a year.
Stay-at-home parent salaryA way of pricing a stay-at-home parent's unpaid work by what it would cost to pay others for the same hours; no official source sets one figure.
Summer camp costWhat families pay for day or overnight summer camp; in a 2022 American Camp Association survey, most day camps charged $1 to $100 a day.

T

Teacher gift amountHow much to spend on a gift for a child's teacher, which etiquette guides leave to you and some states and school districts cap for public school staff.
Transcriptionist payWhat a transcriptionist earns for turning recorded speech into written text; BLS put the median for medical transcriptionists at $19.43 an hour in May 2025.
Tutor ratesWhat a tutor charges, usually by the hour or the session; the BLS median wage for employed tutors was $20.84 an hour in May 2025.

V

Virtual assistant salaryWhat a virtual assistant, someone who supports clients remotely over the internet, earns; PayScale's June 2026 data puts the US median at $19.70 an hour.