Holidays or Set Weekly Rate?

[JeepGirl6]

I am revising my contract for 2014. I currently do not charge for days I am off, holidays, vacations etc. Right now my parents pay for when their child is not here & when they go on vacation they pay 50%.

I was going to change my contract so that I get paid for 5 calendar Holidays. Right now when its a holiday for example the week of Christmas I am closed Tuesday & Wednesday so a full time family will be paying me $96 instead of $160. I am trying to decide if I should just do a set weekly rate no matter whether a holiday falls on a week day or weekend, if that makes sense. So a full time parent would pay $160 weekly the whole year regardless of holidays, it wouldnt matter what days Holidays end up on. Or do I charge for my 5 holidays & not have a set weekly rate when it comes to holiday time. I am trying to graduàlly work this in since it will be new( thats why I am not charging for all holidays) I also plan on giving the parents a little extra with my new contract. I plan on giving them(full time only 4-5 days) 4-5 free vacations days & 3 free sick days.

With me giving them 4-5 vacation days & 3 free sick days its like they are really not paying for 7 holidays & I only get paid for 3. Even though I will do a set weekly rate & don't say paid holidays. I am already not getting paid for any holidays now. Confusing?

I was doing 4-5 days because I have full timers that only come & pay for 4 days m-th so I only give them 4 free days

Or do I give parents so many free days a year, 6 for example and they use them as they wish, vacation, sick days etc?

Which way do you think parents would think its not asking of too much?

Let me know what you think Thanks!

[originalkat]

That sounds more than reasonable to me. I would go for it!happyface

[JeepGirl6]

Thanks :-) Anyone else?

[butterfly]

I'd do a flat weekly rate. You deserve to get some holidays paid - the parents do... If you feel like you want to give them a few free days, in the end it's pretty much a wash anyways - isn't it?

I do a flat rate - regardless of attendence or closures. The only break I offer is when I have to unexpectedly close due to my own illness or family emergency. Any other scheduled closures are paid.

[MarinaVanessa]

I also do a flat weekly rate except when I close for personal reasons like vacation, sick days or training but parents pay the full weekly rate when I close for holidays, I close 9 days for holidays but if they land on a weekend then I don't bother to close, just my preference.

I don't think that closing for holidays and being paid for those days even if they fall on a weekend is unreasonable. The only reason that I don't do it anymore is because my DH doesn't get those days off so I end up sitting around twiddling my thumbs . I'd rather have a house full of kids than not, my kids like their "friends" too so for us it's better all around and of course my clients appreciate the perk.

But you do what is best for you. If you want to charge a flat weekly rate regardless of attendance ... do it. If you want to have paid holidays, give yourself a few sick days, give yourself a paid vacation etc. ... do it.

Some providers in my area count up their "paid" days that they'll be closed and add up the money for them then they add that to the weekly rate and round it up to the nearest dollar and call it a "rate increase" and tell clients that they "don't pay" for the days that the provider closes. That's what I did. In other words I incorporate the days that I would close into my weekly rate and my clients feel like they're getting a deal because they think they "don't pay" when I close for vacays and such but in reality those days are included in my weekly rate. Sneaky sneaky but it works . And my clients pay for absences for their own child's vacays, sicknesses etc.