Vacation- paid or not?

[busymomof2]

I am starting a new day care in Fresno and working on my policy and procedures. I have two questions for those of you who are established. I would really appreciate the help. Also if you have a website I would like to see it. I am working on mine and need ideas. Thanks!!!!!!!

1. Is provider vacation usually paid?
2. Does the parent pay when they are on vacation?

[tymaboy]

1- I only get 10 paid Holidays. I do not get paid for any other time I take off.

2- Parents get a free week & if they take a second week it is 1/2 rate of what their normal weekly rate is.

[DCMom]

I have 2 weeks of vacation paid at 1/2 rate, so in effect is one week paid to me. I used to have 2 weeks paid to me and 1 week unpaid to my daycare families, but we had some instances of trying to take more than one week unpaid which caused problems so I changed the policy.

I also have 10 paid holidays and I am now up to 7 paid personal days.

Yes I know, it sounds excessive but I have been in this business over 20 years and have discovered that time off is much more important to me than money. The last 7 years, instead of raising rates each year (which I have a hard time doing) I add a paid personal day.

[Golden Rule]

Wow!! I am behind the curve ball on this.... If I close I don't charge.... I never even considered that I could

I rarely close as I can't afford it, just Thanksgiving and Christmas.....


How would someone word their contract for this? I ask to help myself and the OP, here..

[DCMom]

In my own defense, in Minnesota there is a rate survey yearly by county and type of care. I am consistently at or below the lowest rate for my zip code.
I think that softens the blow a bit. I am also very upfront the initial interview about my time off and I schedule all of my days for the year so everyone can plan well ahead for back up care.

Obviously this will only work if the area where you live will support it. I have been able to find a niche between 'small in home family care' and 'large center care' with my 'large group family child care' and I exploit it :-)

[jen]

I charge for all holidays but not for my vacation time.

[busymomof2]

DCMom-I like the idea of adding paid personal days! So do your parents pay 1/2 or full fee for their one or 2 week vacation?

[SunflowerMama]

I take 7 federal holidays paid and one week in December paid. I offer the families one week unpaid vacation. After that they would just pay.

[momofboys]

I am starting a new day care in Fresno and working on my policy and procedures. I have two questions for those of you who are established. I would really appreciate the help. Also if you have a website I would like to see it. I am working on mine and need ideas. Thanks!!!!!!!

1. Is provider vacation usually paid?
2. Does the parent pay when they are on vacation?

The days I take off for vacation are unpaid. My parent does not take a vacation per say since I care for a teacher's family & don't provide care for her over the summer. However, she does have school breaks (Christmas, etc) that she is off but I truly didn't care about not getting paid b/c I wanted that time with my family. Other than Christmas break & Turkey day break she did not take vacation. I did not ask to be paid for those timeframes. I will include some holiday pay though for next year.

[Janet]

Vacation pay

I've never charged for my vacations or the dc families vacations, holidays, sick days (for me or kids) or personal days for myself. When I wrote up my contract many years ago, I just didn't factor it in, so that was my fault. I have one family that is actually insisting on paying me for holidays, even though I told her it wasn't neccessary. I pretty much charge for the days that I actually care for kids unless I get a no-call/no-show. If I had it to do over again, I wouldd charge for holidays and a certain number of sick days, but that's OK. In my contract, I state that I don't provide a back up care giver, but I've been lucky enough to have a friend who is also a daycare provider so she covers my vacations (she needs money, the parents need care, and I need a vacation, so everyone wins).

[DCMom]

DCMom-I like the idea of adding paid personal days! So do your parents pay 1/2 or full fee for their one or 2 week vacation?

Because I take the same two weeks each year and give them my plans for the year in January, almost all of my families plan their vacations for the same week(s) I do. For those that do not, they simple pay full price for the week they choose to be gone.

[boysx5]

I take two weeks paid vacation the parents have the choice to take the same weeks as me as I give notice Feb. or they can take a different week and I also get paid. I just started this two years ago and have never had a person not use me because of this. I feel like everyone gets vacation why not us who work hard

[Greenshadow]

I take a few paid federal holidays off per year and two weeks at Christmas time unpaid, when the kids are out of school and my husband has time off. He works a union job and they lay them off for two weeks in Christmas. I take that time off to be with family. I do not charge for my two-weeks off. If a parent wants time off and they give me a month's notice, I will not charge them for one week. If they want more than one week off, I charge half price. If they dont give notice, they pay full price. I do not refund...ever. So if they pay and then decide to take their child for a day that week, or more, thats on them. I do not refund or give credits.

[misol]

My parents pay whether they are here or not. I have 12 paid vacation days, 5 paid sick/personal days, and I can take up to 3 weeks off unpaid. Sounds like a lot and it IS a lot, especially for a newbie. But my last job that I was at for 10 years I got 20 PTO days and I wanted to keep that. No parent has complained or questioned it...yet.

[tmcp2001]

I have 10 paid holidays (pretty standard) and 10 paid vacation days with a minimum of 4 weeks notice. (I usually give MUCH more notice - in April I posted notice for 2 days that I would be closed this month and 3 days I would be closed next month for vacation, so 2-3 months notice.) However, this only applies to my full time families. It would penalize some of my part time families (how many holidays fall on a Friday or Monday??) to apply it to all.

Don't sell yourself short - check with providers in your area to see what is common there. Here it's pretty standard to have paid vacation.