if you understand French (or use Google translate)

http://petitsjobs.ch/membres/Baby-sitting-sur-Geneve-878.html

http://www.petitesannonces.ch/recherche/?tid=252904&ci=Gen%E8ve

http://www.bebe.ch/drupal/node/361406

on average prices seem to range from CHF 10.00 to CHF 15.00 for a baby sitter (simple presence while parents are away), and rise as tasks increase (help with bath time, meal time, play time or sometimes homework, etc) up to CHF 25.00

Paying for a babysitter is the same as any service....you get what you pay for. If you pay 10/15CHF for someone to look after your child even when they are sleeping you wont get good service. The idea is, is that if your child (God forbid) needs help etc, this person will be THE person to look help your child. 

Keeping in mind the average minimum wage is 25CHF per hour, under this means that you are probably paying someone who is in it more for the money (as little as it maybe maybe maybe maybe Pay the normal wage and get someone who has experience and their papers (permit or at least EU). 

Cutting corners to save a little bit of money on your child's head isn't worth it! This is from someone who was a babysitter and now a mother. 

My friend pays her babysitter 10-15 per hour. Has never been more than that and the service has been extremely good. 25 doesn't exist! A company like Priorité enfants and Red Cross take 20 per hour max. 

For my kids chaperon rouge charges me between 13 to 16 chf. I honestly don't know anyone who gets 25. The cleaners get 25 per hour not babysitters.

http://www.prioriteenfants.ch/baby-sitting_en.php 

http://www.croixrougevaudoise.ch/saf/pdf/CG_baby-sitting.pdf

 check the above two links and you will see its between 10 and 20. 20 is charged by priorite enfants and the babysitters told me that they dont get the whole amount! Obviously...

When people dont have much money of course they will accept 10,15 even 5 CHF.

Keeping in mind the prices in Geneva and high living cost (even shareing a room). I would say no less than 15CHF for a babysitter max 20CHF. 25CHF was an example of the minimum wage. 

I agree with you, everyone wants to earn as much as possible. But you are thinking one sidedly. Babysitting is not usually taken as a profession, all my babysitters so far have been students who want to make pocket money. A dr appointment for me means at least 3 hours of babysitting, i would love to pay 30 per hour but that would mean a lot of money for me too! Prices ARE high in geneva and childcare is non existent, people like myself will take babysitter only if they charge less and there are MANY who charge less. There are aupairs who do babysitting in their extra hours and I know of one who charges 7 per hour. No they are not starving and its not exploitation, its not a labour either otherwise 16 years olds wouldnt be doing it. Do you know how much aupairs get? 800 a month! And they work 35 hours a week. I see so many aupairs coming from spain and portugal not because they are aupairs in "true" sense but because the normal wage in these countries is lower than what an aupair gets here, so should we start paying them 3500 too.....

Thank you for all the replies. We have found someone who is charging 25CHF but has no references in Geneva. The price seemed high and based on your comments, I am now looking for an alternative. For anyone interested, http://babysitting24.ch/ seems like a promising website. Similar to something we have used back home. 

full day without cleaning and cooking 10-12 chf/our. Mostly girls charge around 2000 chf per month. With cleaning and cooking more of caurse.

If only some days or few ours it is 13-15 chf/our.

Priority enfants has my vote.  They are completely professional - everyone they have sent, have been excellent.  They all have been screened and have First Aid. They charge CHF 20 an hour which you pay directly to the babysitter.  You need to have "membership" with Priority enfants, ie abonnement.

the probleme is that for full day/week/month 20chf/hour it will cost around 4000 chf per month?! Who can effort it?

not enough crèches in Geneva, not enouph mamans du jour official avalable. Privat crèche in Geneva costs 150chf/day.

I am in a waiting list N° 2600 for the crèche from my commune. They clearly told me from 2 to 4 years of waiting.

Well its very strange that you do not get what I mean..... Minimum wage in Portugal is 560 euros, and you have to pay your rent and food etc from this money, its not what aupairs get, it is minimum wage of a worker. So many young girls and boys want to be aupair in a place like Switzerland not because they LOVE what they are doing but becaue they need money, and here they get that money plus free food and accomodation. There are aupairs who do babysitting in extra hours. You can check on facebook groups, Aupairs in Switzerland and Geneva nannies and aupairs.

i have had aupairs myself and have several friends with aupairs as it is the most affordable childcare for working parents.

just 20chf/our is too expencive for the full day/week/month babysitter.

For example after all deductions from my salary and all expences i have around 900 chf pocket money per month. So the living-in (nourri-logé) au pair is getting 700-1000 chf netto. I find it more then correct.

As i was writing before for 20chf/our if i can i will go to privat crèche.

From another side how the baby sitter can get same salary as an accountant or secretary? Also nobody never can give you 100% garantee that the expensive babysitter will treat you kid as her own! Proved. imho

:))))

they dont clean 9 hours per day, wright?

My self i get 18/hour brutto, and i am happy. I am not a cleaner or babysitter, just office employee. 

I never had a a problem with babysitters so far, they have been really "good, honest, polite, caring and reliable". Never have I felt that the level of reliability increases or decreases with 5 francs more or less. May be I have been lucky and always came across nice girls. Never negotiated the price either, mostly they ask 15. Red cross ones have been taking 13 to 16 (bill comes later by post) and they have been super nice so far.

well, i never had a cleaner - just no money for this. And to chose between nunny and cleaner - nonsence. 

and i dont know anybody, really anybody, who pays 200 chf per day (i mean normal salary people). Those people put kids to private creche.

Nobody can give garantee that a nunny is taking care of your kid well, when nobody can see her.

If you charge 20 per hour for 9 hours of babysitting, that means180 a day so if someone emlpoys you and you work 22 days a month you get about 4000 per month. Most of the people earn around 6000, so do you seriously think they can afford a full time babysitter? It is either mama de jour or aupair or one of the parent has to stop working. What we get is occasional babysitting not by professional babysitters but by students and aupairs who want to make extra money. 

As far as cleaning is concerned its also occasional cleaning of once a week for a couple of hours. 

Not everybody can do it. If woman is alone or if 2 salaries of parents are not enouph. 

Again 2000 - 2500k netto per month is an exellent salary. 

Sure, but Preciosa has special skills: she's a prof. football coach and - as a calcio aficionado - a master at teaching kids how to fake a foul to get a free kick.

lol it's is very important for kids of 4-5 months :))

Never too early...

one of my friend gets 30CHF per hour ;)

Presiocia - au pair gets 700chf POCKET MONEY. All together she earns around 2000chf for 30hours work (Zurich).

1000chf - food and room

700chf- pocket money

200chf - health insurance

60chf - ticket for trams etc.

plus costs of the language school.

I work as a nanny in Zurich and for extra babysittitng (another family) I used ti get 20 which was fair, cuz kids were going to bed as I arrived.

It all depends on where in Switzerland you live, in Zurich we get paid the highest.

So I say 18 is rather a minimum for a babysitter in Zurich.

Parents please just check on the swiss laws dont take in mind what in these thread!.and be carefull now the nanny/aupair/babysitters are reporting employers who are not paying well/missuse---------

Something cheaper might comeout expensive.

Presciosia this is the rule to send an au pair to a language school.

Ive been au pair myself in two different families.

Family must cover 50% of health insurance, most of the families pay 100% though. Its a must to pay for a tram tickets if you have to ´travel´with kids. If no, then obviously no.

As to a babysitting pay. Its obviously all about who you have. You pay less to a 15 years old neighbour who will watch tv while your kids play and differently to a qualified nanny who would spend some quality time with your kids before they go to bed.

I know most parents would like to get the best service for (almost) free. But its all about your kids! And I agree. Its scary than a cleaning lady gets more than a nanny. I know, cleaning is a hard work too! but you give your kids to someone to look after them, to make sure they stay alive.

Ive been working with kids for 7 years and I can say : you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

I totally agree with Francesca.

I believe what she meant was, that if a girl is doing extra babysitting (occasional, because that's what babysitting is !!! If you are talking about full time job in child care it's a Nanny, and here in Switzerland Live out Nanny can get up to 3500 CHF). You can't calculate 20 CHF as a regular rate per hour as a full working day of 9 hours for 5 days a week, four weeks in a month. 20 CHF per hour for a babysitting, when you need to leave the kids during the evening, over night or during the weekend is the minimum. Don't be cheap, because if you can have a 16 year old babysitter and compare her with a 26 babysitter and you can see a difference. It's so personal, if you choose not to care who are you leaving your kids with, if you willing to pay the prize or you just want them not to be alone and it could be anyone. Personally if it would be my child, I'm hiring the best person without hesitation about 5 franks more or less, she is offering to take a good care of my kids and she is worth it. Somebody said we don't know if they are treating kids well, it's an easiest solution for that, I'm not sure any of you heard that term before: REFERENCES ????!!!!!!

About the au pairs, subject is so huge with so many different opinions.
First of all, it's all about the family the girl is working for. Not everybody gets a tram/train/metro card. I know that some girls had to pay for their insurance by themselves. Language school is not a must, it's a privilege. It basically comes to the point, where the girl earns 1700 CHF (if we assume that living expenses are calculated into 1000 CHF and the pocket money into 700 CHF). Let's say now she needs to be a live out au pair, with the same paycheck. Is there anyone who wants to tell me and convince me that here, In Geneva ( I won't be talking about Zurich when I have no idea about the reality out there but I know pretty well the situation here) you can rent an apartment, pay for transportation to and from work (with the train ticket prizes even with the card especially when you are 25+ rates are higher) and for your own living and be ok? From what I know, to rent an apartment you need to spent at least around a 1000 CHF ( we won't even discus the mandatory 3 or more rents payed straight up front) pay for your transportation, bills for your phone, internet or whatever and eat something. I mean you can forget about a social life, because you won't be able to even go for a drink once in a while, which probably will end up depression.
Those of you here, saying stupid things about the au pairs being lucky here in this country, I detest this kind of opinion. It's a one big, freaking surviving school of life. There is nothing pretty, easy or those girls definitely don't feel lucky. Yeah, somebody said something about Spain and how low rate job payments are there. So? It's all about one human being, working hard, 5 days a week in a stressful environment at someone else's house, month by month, being far away from home, their safe zone and family and at the end doing all this to get a shitty paycheck.
Focus on one thing, too much makes your heads spin. If you are talking about Switzerland focus on Switzerland and the situation here. Compare one work environment, instead of comparing an au pair with an office worker ! Compare an au pair (1700) with a nanny (3500). They are doing the same job! People who can't afford that, decides to go in other directions with their child care, it's obvious. People who can afford it, prefer it better, because the child gets full attention, can get attached to one person and creat an unique relationship. We are talking about professional care, where Nannies are highly educated (sometimes better then some of the office workers) with the University diplomas, first aid courses and years of experience etc.They are hired not to be a nanny who sits around and let the kids do whatever, they teach kids languages, sports, communication and how to develop interests and hobbies. That's what people are willing to pay, to get that much from it, instead of leaving their kids in a preschool or wherever to spent the whole day in a group of 20 other kids without moving forward and spending day playing, when teacher is just around. At the end that's the difference between those two, au pair and a nanny, and their paychecks.
You can't talk about Africa and compare it to the USA. BE REAL PEOPLE.

You seem to have no idea of what an Aupair is! Aupair is a student  or a young person who wants to learn a langaue and explore another country by living WITH the family, getting accommodation and food and in exchange watch the kids or help out with light work. In some countries there is no set rule of how much pocket money they get. It's not a JOB, and it's perfectly legal and according to law. Don't make it sound like slavery pleaseeee!!!! Aupairs are very happy here, I am still in touch with my au pairs, have had wonderful time with them, in many ways aupairs are preferred as they become part of family and bond with kids. What's wrong in being an Aupair? Or do you want to say they should get paid more? 

A parent like myself have to consider many factors and decide on child are. The décision we make are very personal and it's very arrogant of anyone to criticise a choice of a parent when it comes to child care. Don't judge a person when you haven't walked a mile in their shoes!!

An example: I was paying more than the salary of  a nanny to send my kids to crèche because I wanted my kids to socialise and learn more without being always be with an adult but I respect the choice of a parent who choose a nanny over crèche. They must have a reason for it. Beside the fact that crèches are not easily available anyway.

My kids go to a private school. They have unlimited activities and their days are full and my Aupair is expected to help out in evenings and Wednesdays. And so far I have NO COMPLAINTS. Why would I hire a 20 per hour babysitter if it's not needed and why would someone criticise my choice? If I have a spare room and I can provide what an Aupair needs and we are both happy what's the issue? 

Excuse me, but you dont know the fact, that I was an au pair so I truly believe that I know what au pair is and the subject here is about au pairs getting not enough money for the same job they do like nannies besides the topic about the babysitters. Did I called any au pair a slave? I don't see that anywhere, did I said it's hard for them? Yes, definitely. We are comparing here, the salaries not how long your au pair is working during the week and that she is not complaining. It's not about your au pair at all, if she is working one evening a week and helping out. It's about the girls who are not appreciated for working 12 hours a day, 5 days a week for a minimum salary. So what that this case is not like any of your ex au pairs, does that mean that everybody is like your ex au pairs? There are girl totally happy with the family, still complaining behind their back about not having enough money. You can think what you want, but the real talking starts between au pairs, not between a host mum and the au pair. You are the one talking about au pairs when you just hired few and haven't walked in OUR shoes.

did you really said that being an au pair is NOT A JOB?! How dare you! It's definitely not a vacation, I'll tell you that. What you wrote is so offensive on so many levels. 

From what I understand, being an au pair is playing the role of the mom (when she not available or whatever).

Bottom line, anyone who thinks that being an au pair is not a job must therefore think that being a mom isn't either...

The comment about "au pair not being a job" was so low class, it's just takes it to another level of how people see through others.

well done, host mum of the year.

About the complaining to low salary, bad boss etc etc you can apply it to any work. There will be always ppls who are not happy.

Being mom = unpaid job 

All over again,

Excuse me, but are we talking here about all the jobs in the world, complaining about my boss in the office, your boss in the office, her boss in the office OR we are actually discussing here AU PAIR / BABYSITTER job? What's fair, what's not, what is the reality. We can start another tread where we can complain about all the bosses in the world and all the jobs in the world but here, let's stick to one thing because people here really quickly loose the subject in this conversation.

So far we found out, that some people are doing extraordinary thing, giving away their empty spare bedrooms to help au pairs while still minimum salary and being unappreciated was the issue here (it's like saying: "I can give you my guest bedroom and you take care of my child without decadent salary" (let's see how lucky that would feel) ), that being an au pair is not a job, that qualified babysitters shouldn't be asking for 20CHF for an occasional babysitting and at end of this conversation we are heading to the direction, that since the being a mother is an unpaid job, au pairs who are the replacement of mums during working hours should be working for free or we should feel sorry for all the mothers that are hiring au pairs and they have to pay them, when they don't get any money for being a mom to their own children ? What kind of argument is it?!
This all is just unreal to me. I wish one of you would be actually an au pair for a month or two.

A colleague was telling me to stop banging my head against the wall by replying in this thread but anyway I came to clarify something. By JOB I meant you can't apply the "minimum wage" rule to it. I am not talking about physically doing the job but legally it's not a full time labour otherwise according to Swiss law you would be paying their salary and pension etc. I don't know if you can understand what I am saying?

Being mom is beautiful. It's a choice a woman makes and it's not an unpaid job as reward is pure love. Don't degrade mothers by calling them paid or unpaid.

aupairs are giving a very tough competition to the babysitters business. I am still not getting what are you trying to imply? Aupairs not be hired? They be paid more? Or what? 

yes, to be a mother is a hard "unpaid" job for all the life. Once mуm - you are mуm for all the life. You don't know this expression? You don't have your own kids?

and yes you have to be sorry that maternity leave in Switzerland is from 8 to 16 weeks only!!!! depending on cantons. And there is no enough creches. And then women have to decide what to do with a small innocent baby. And yes, it brеaks thier hearts to leave them with somebody else, because simply no choice! And yes, sometimes "up pair" is the only possibility for somebody because it is cheaper.

Why are we discussing now how it is to leave a newborn and go back to work?

I'm so done with this conversation here, because Meryame you can bang your head against the wall the whole day and still at the end you don't even follow what we are talking here about, do you ? 

After all this has been said, Meryame conclusion is "don't hire au pair" :D where is the logic here?! 

i think you take me for somebody else!

go to bang your own head if you want.

If you can not afford to pay for good child care then why have a child? I know this is a controversial comment, but nothing is worse than when people skip out on childcare and their children. Switzerland costs a lot and the Cantons can help but MANY mothers work and pay at least the minimum for childcare. To pay 10CHF to someone to look after your child is ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous I'll say it once and I will say it again. 

Angie because prada vuitton bags are so bloody expensive so they need to save somewhere!!! 

Ive been there and have seen it.

I havent heard/met any mother who saves on the childcare without very expensive tools ! 

Crazy and sad

HI everyone. I am aware that this threat is a bit outdate. However the question of hoch much a babysitter should cost is still very popular. I would recommend you this aricle available in english, which gives recommendation about a good wage for a babysitter in CHF and Switzerland. http://quitt.ch/en/fair-wage-for-cleaners