These Nannies Make Over $200,00 per Year & We Want to Sign Up

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Heidi Joline is a nanny working for a family in Los Angeles. But she isn’t just a student who picked up the job for some extra cash after school.

Joline, who has been working as a nanny for almost 20 years, earns over $100,000 annually.

She has also taken classes at Yale on child rearing and classes at Stanford on health across the gender spectrum. She has studied child child psychology, newborn care, and resilience following trauma. She has also passed the International Nanny Association Exam.

Child care wasn’t necessarily the career plan she’d had in mind.

"Saying you're a nanny doesn't get that 'Oh! You're a nanny? That's so exciting!' reaction from people," Jolie told CNN. "It's like "Oh, you're a nanny. When are you going to get a real job?”

But now child care positions are being seen as high-paying positions that require skilled workers.

Keith Greenhouse, chief executive of the household staffing company Pavillion Agency, explained that wealthier families are looking for nannies who speak different languages and can do more than just babysit.

"We've seen a lot of requests for Mandarin and French speakers in the nanny role," Greenhouse said. "Lately more than ever people want someone who is tech savvy and nannies who can move into a family assistant role.”

And families are paying top dollar for these nannies.

Although they may be required to work long hours or overnights and travel with families, they can earn $150,000 to $180,000 a year in places like New York or Los Angeles.

The salaries are even higher in the Bay Area. "Families are paying over $220,000 a year in San Francisco," said Anita Rogers, president and founder of British American Household Staffing. "There's a value in paying well for your employees, especially in your household.”

Those higher salaries come with more expectations for a higher level of skill. Educated Nannies, a staffing agency in Los Angeles, requires nannies to have a college degree and it helps to have a background in child development, which many families seek.

These days, nannies are expected to do more than just sit the kids in front of the TV for a movie or two.

"Many of our families don't want any screen time for the kids," said Ryan Jordan, founder of Educated Nannies. "So that's the time the nanny needs to bring in preschool curriculum and adventures.”

Joline, who is working for a family in Los Angeles, has a program for her charges that would rival any professional daycare operation. 

She prepares a monthly curriculum for the preschooler she cares for that involves a schedule of songs, stories and activities.

For this month’s “bugs” theme, Joline and the child released 3,000 ladybugs into the wild and learned words in Spanish, French, and Mandarin.

Jolie’s expertise earned her the 2019 Nanny of the Year award from the International Nanny Association.

"As a nanny you have to have those specialties and you have to continue your education," Joline said. "In other places, it may be fine to just have CPR training, but if you're in the bigger markets, where you are expecting higher pay and working with higher-profile people, you need specialized skills to stand out."

Working as a nanny can be more lucrative than some jobs in the educational sector.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CNN notes, a preschool teacher makes $13 to $15 an hour, or around $30,000 a year. Skilled nannies can earn double or more than that, earning $25 to $40 an hour. 

Nannies in Los Angeles with special training in newborn care can sometimes make $70 an hour, adding up to a possible $200,000 annual salary when figuring in overtime and travel pay, Ryan said. Of course, this may require hectic schedules of nine- or 10-hour shifts, six days a week.

Nannies with additional training and credentials find themselves in high demand by affluent families who require a nanny or two and sometimes a lactation consultant and a newborn care specialist.

Marly Higgins Driskell’s title is "certified credentialed master newborn care specialist,” and she specializes in working with families with multiple children such as triplets, quadruplets, and even quintuplets.

Driskell works on sleep conditioning new babies but doesn’t want to be called a night nurse, who takes direction from the parents. She considers herself more of a consultant. 

"I come in and help empower and educate the parents," she told CNN. "If there are other caregivers in the house, I will take the lead. What happens during the day impacts what happens at night."

Fees in Houston, where Driskell works, are lower than in New York or Los Angeles. She starts at $35 an hour and will sometimes work up to 80 hours per week.

Her six-figure salary allows her to have a personal assistant, a social media assistant, and a housekeeper to keep her own home in order.

Obviously, the role and image of the nanny has changed since the days of Mary Poppins.

"In this field, things change all the time," Joline said. "What we did with our children five years ago is not what we're doing now with regard to nutrition, socialization, education and overall well-being. You have to keep up with that to help inform the parents.”