What is the average babysitting rate in Australia?
By Babysits
•
10 min read
How much do you pay a babysitter in Australia in 2024 and how much can you ask for babysitting per hour? Find out the prices for babysitting in your area and how you can determine your own babysitting costs and rates.
You’re almost there, you’ve found a trustworthy babysitter who’s going to come babysit for the first time soon. You only need to decide the hourly rate for babysitting, but how much are you going to offer them? What is the average cost for babysitting in Australia? And how do you determine what the babysitting rate should be? Don’t panic, we’ve created this thorough, and simple guide to help you!
- What is the average babysitting rate in Australia?
- How much should I pay the babysitter?
- What is the average babysitting rate worldwide?
What is the average babysitting rate in Australia?
The average babysitting rate in Australia in 2024 is $25.75 per hour, based on our data of thousands of babysitters.
This shows an increase from the average babysitting cost per hour in 2023 ($22.94/hour).
However, the babysitting rate varies based on where you are in Australia. So, we’ve taken a look at babysitters in different cities around the country! Babysitting prices in Sydney were the highest, here parents could expect to pay in the range of $26.68. On the other hand, Adelaide had the lowest average babysitting costs (of the largest cities in Australia), with the average rate that babysitters earned per hour was around $25.12.
Babysitting costs in the most populous cities in Australia
Babysitting rates in Sydney
Childcare costs in Sydney are slightly above the average childcare costs across Australia. Specifically, the average babysitting rate in Sydney is $26.68 per hour. This is higher than the average of babysitting rate across the country.
Babysitting rates in Melbourne
Wondering how much a babysitter costs in Melbourne? Babysitters in Melbourne are paid on average slightly less than those in Sydney. The average babysitting rate in Melbourne is $26.20, still above the country wide average.
Babysitting rates in Brisbane
And, what do you pay a babysitter per hour in Brisbane? Here, the average babysitting rates are $25.71.
Babysitting rates in Perth
In Perth, the average cost for an hour of babysitting is $25.65, slightly below the country-wide average.
Babysitting rates in Canberra
Babysitting in Australia's capitol, Canberra, costs around $25.56 per hour.
Interested in how much the average babysitter is paid in other areas around Australia? Have a look at our infographic for more detailed information!
Babysitting costs per state/territory in Australia
The average hourly cost for babysitting differs in each state/territory:
- New South Wales: $26.26
- Queensland: $25.55
- Northern Territory: $25.31
- South Australia: $25.04
- West Australia: $25.57
- Tasmania: 25.47
- ACT: 25.45
- Victoria: 25.90
Childcare and Babysitting cost statistics Australia - Previous years
View the infographic for average costs of babysitting from previous years here:
Do keep in mind that this is simply the average babysitting rate. Other factors such as the number of children, additional tasks, and amount of experience also have an impact on how much a babysitter may cost. Want to learn more about how exactly these factors can impact the babysitting rate? Read more about determining how much to pay the babysitter below!
How much should I pay the babysitter?
On average, babysitters ask around $25.75/hour for babysitting. However, as we mentioned earlier this can differ depending on the babysitter and situation. Factors such as knowledge and experience of the babysitter, the number of children, and other tasks that the babysitter may have to do can influence whether the babysitting rate is higher or lower than the average babysitting rate.
Minimum wage
When determining how much to pay the babysitter it is important to first look at the minimum wage and how it applies to the situation. With this, you can see what a person of a certain age is legally entitled to earn. The national minimum wage in Australia is currently $23.23 per hour, however junior employees (someone under the age of 21) have a lower minimum wage rate.
It's important to keep in mind that factors such as knowledge, experience, and extra responsibilities or requirements can increase the average hourly rate.
Knowledge and experience
As a parent, you make your own decisions about whether you choose a babysitter with more experience, or one who loves children but lacks a bit of experience in babysitting. Knowledge and experience aren’t always related to age. For example, a 21 year old could have just as much experience babysitting as a 16 year old in some cases.
In the end, it depends on what the parent is most comfortable with. As a parent, you can hire a babysitter with less experience and pay them less per hour. Or, you can decide to pay more per hour for a babysitter, because they have 2 years of experience and for example have a background check or first aid certificate.
What are the duties and responsibilities of a babysitter?
Next to ensuring that the children are enjoying themselves and are well looked after, a babysitter can also have extra tasks to perform. The babysitter and parents can coordinate what these extra tasks or responsibilities may be. Extra tasks can potentially increase the babysitting rate significantly.
Household chores
Sometimes, parents prefer that babysitters also take care of some household chores while babysitting. Some examples of this could be vacuuming, cooking, and/or tidying up the house. If the babysitter is open to this, they can certainly agree to carrying out these chores. However, in doing so, the babysitter may ask for a higher rate. These are, of course, extra tasks that they need to do next to the main task of babysitting.
Tutoring or Homework Help
Is the babysitter good at math or history perhaps? If the child they’re babysitting needs help, the babysitter can, next to their general babysitting tasks, also help with the child’s homework.
Pickup and Drop off
As a parent, you can also arrange that the babysitter picks your child up or brings them somewhere. For example, the babysitter can pick the children up from school and bring them to soccer practice. Not every babysitter is so flexible, and because of this the babysitter could ask for a bit extra hourly for this task.
Pet sitting
In 2019-2020, 67% of American households, or 85 million families, had pets (source). So, there is a relatively large chance that the babysitter has to deal with a pet! Along these lines, caring for a pet is an extra task that a babysitter may be responsible for. This may include walking the dog, cleaning the cat’s litter box, brushing the pets’ hair, or caring for and feeding the pet.
Babysitting hours
The babysitting rate can vary depending on the time of day. Many parents pay a babysitter who babysit during the day a bit more than those who work only in the evening. This is because children often are simply sleeping in the evening, and the babysitter only needs to be there in the event that the child wakes up. On the other hand, babysitters who stay past midnight to care for the kids, overnight babysitters, are often paid a bit extra above the normal hourly rate.
Multiple children
Does the babysitter need to care for multiple children? This can increase the rate that a babysitter is paid. This clearly comes associated with the extra responsibility and work of having to look after multiple children.
Ages of the children
Are the children still young and do they still need a lot of supervision? Then the babysitting rate is normally higher than when the children are a bit older and need less supervision. This is because there is a significant difference in the amount of work and responsibilities. Children that are older can already do some things by themselves, such as going to the toilet.
Take a look at the infographic below to see what a babysitter can ask above the normal rate based on these factors.
The babysitting rate per hour needs to be coordinated between the parent and the babysitter. Look at the knowledge, experience, and age of the babysitter and discuss extra tasks that the babysitter is responsible for. This way you can put together a fair babysitting rate!
What is the average babysitting rate worldwide?
There are babysitters who choose to go work as a babysitter abroad! This can be for example as a side job while studying abroad, as an au pair, or those who simply choose to do so as an expat. There are also parents who need to look for babysitters abroad, for example when traveling or moving to another country.
Luckily, you can easily use your Babysits profile to find babysitting work and babysitters across 80+ countries.
Whether you’re looking for a babysitter abroad, looking for babysitting work abroad, or simply just interested in how the global average babysitting rates differ per country (based on the countries where we’re active), we’ve compiled them for you below.
After comparing the average babysitting rates per country, we can see that Australia has a relatively high babysitting rate. Countries with similar rates included New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. The highest babysitting rate is in Switzerland, where babysitters are paid around $29 aud per hour.
Do keep in mind that these changes in average hourly wages, between babysitters in different countries, are in part due to the differences in cost of living and income between the countries. For example, even though babysitters in Switzerland earn the most, the average prices of products and services there are also higher than in some of the other countries listed.
Now that you know how much the average babysitter is paid in Australia, it's time to get started! Find the perfect babysitting job or babysitter near you. We also have fantastic nannies at Babysits, so be sure to use our nanny serach function to find nanny services today.
