Paid Vacation

[KSDC]

I seem to be in the minority. I don't charge for my days off. I do take up to 15 unpaid vacation/personal day, in addition to holidays.

[Littlelearnersdaycare]

I take 8 Paid holidays, 5 paid personal vacation days and 5 unpaid personal vacation days. I have never had an issue finding families due to my vacation days. If I am sick and have to cancel daycare suddenly, i always credit the families for that day. Same goes for weather cancelations (which almost NEVER happen because daycare is in my home)
If i cannot give at least two weeks notice for a paid day off, i always credit them for that day.

[Littlelearnersdaycare]

Also, may i ask which holidays people take off? I don't think i can come up with any more holidays and i only have 8.

[Littlelearnersdaycare]

I think it's Time to revamp my handbook! I take 10 holidays and two weeks of vacation but they're unpaid. Maybe I should have them start paying !?

You don't charge for holidays either? I don't know of any daycares in my area that don't charge for holidays. You should definitely consider changing your contract a bit

[Blackcat31]

I seem to be in the minority. I don't charge for my days off. I do take up to 15 unpaid vacation/personal day, in addition to holidays.

I don't charge for holidays or vacation days anymore either.

If I'm open, they pay.

If I'm closed, they don't.

Works easiest for me and seems to be my "happy middle".

...at least the best one I've found so far over the years.

I did raise my rates considerably when I implemented this change so I am still basically making the same income as I did before when I charged for each of my holidays/days off and vacations.

I also implemented the graduated rate scale (rates according to pick up time) at the same time too and its helped stabilize not only my income but my work hours/days too.

[Littlelearnersdaycare]

I don't charge for holidays or vacation days anymore either.

If I'm open, they pay.

If I'm closed, they don't.

Works easiest for me and seems to be my "happy middle".

...at least the best one I've found so far over the years.

I did raise my rates considerably when I implemented this change so I am still basically making the same income as I did before when I charged for each of my holidays/days off and vacations.

I also implemented the graduated rate scale (rates according to pick up time) at the same time too and its helped stabilize not only my income but my work hours/days too.

Thats actually a really good idea. I might have to sit down and calculate what I would be making if i charged a little bit more per child and then had all holidays and my vacation days unpaid. It may be easier all around.

The only problem with that though is that my daycare is paid for by the day. I do not charge hourly UNLESS their child is in school and coming half days.
The going rate in my area is $35 per day for an infant (under 2) and $30 per day for toddler (over 2)

[Annalee]

I don't charge for holidays or vacation days anymore either.

If I'm open, they pay.

If I'm closed, they don't.

Works easiest for me and seems to be my "happy middle".

...at least the best one I've found so far over the years.

I did raise my rates considerably when I implemented this change so I am still basically making the same income as I did before when I charged for each of my holidays/days off and vacations.

I also implemented the graduated rate scale (rates according to pick up time) at the same time too and its helped stabilize not only my income but my work hours/days too.

It took me a long time to feel comfortable enforcing my 52 pay weeks contract....I would be scared to ever go back.....

[craftymissbeth]

I don't charge for any days I'm closed, either, but I make up for that by having slightly higher rates than the median in my area.

Like BC, when I'm open they pay. When I'm closed, they don't.


I take up to 3 weeks of vacation each year unpaid. I close for some holidays, but all little holidays I stay open and just hope I have a smaller load that day

I really only take off holidays like Thanksgiving, Black Friday (because that's a holiday to me ), Xmas Eve & Xmas Day (actually, I take off that whole week), and new years day.

[Blackcat31]

Thats actually a really good idea. I might have to sit down and calculate what I would be making if i charged a little bit more per child and then had all holidays and my vacation days unpaid. It may be easier all around.

The only problem with that though is that my daycare is paid for by the day. I do not charge hourly UNLESS their child is in school and coming half days.
The going rate in my area is $35 per day for an infant (under 2) and $30 per day for toddler (over 2)

I don't even charge a daily rate....I charge a weekly flat rate. (I adjust for weeks that aren't 5 days)

It took me a long time to feel comfortable enforcing my 52 pay weeks contract....I would be scared to ever go back.....

I got tired of having to explain such a simple concept to everyone.

So I just raised my weekly rates and said the actual words "You do NOT have to pay when I am closed"

Now I still make the same yearly income but have no complicated or difficult explaining to do...

[earlystart]

My first year I gave myself 14 days unpaid vacation and 11 paid holidays a year, but didn't want to use my vacation days because I wasn't willing to lose like $200/day in income. The next year I told the parents instead of raising my rates this year I would be adding 5 paid vacation days. The parents used to have 14 vacation days at 50% off, then I changed it to 10 days at 50% off for the kids who came 5 days, 6 days vacation for kids who come 3 days, 4 days for kids who come 2 days. If I'm closed due to illness I wouldn't charge but luckily I've never had to do that. No one has ever had a problem with my policies.

[KayzKidz]

Hmmm, This post gets me wondering if I should change my contract!! Right now I have 2 wks vacation written in and certain holiday times that I take off, however, I don't get paid for this time. Maybe I should think about either doing those holidays paid or increasing my price per day for my families.

[taylorw1210]

I just had to explain this to a new mom who interviewed yesterday. They want to enroll with me, and while mom understands why I have the paid time off I have in my policies, dad is not happy with it.

I take 5 days of paid vacation, but I also give 5 days of unpaid vacation time to my families - and they have the option of using it during my vacation or reserving it for their own. 50% of my families take it during mine, and the other 50% reserve it for their own.

I do not take any personal days or sick days paid.

I do close for the federal holidays, paid, however.

[Blackcat31]

I just had to explain this to a new mom who interviewed yesterday. They want to enroll with me, and while mom understands why I have the paid time off I have in my policies, dad is not happy with it.

I take 5 days of paid vacation, but I also give 5 days of unpaid vacation time to my families - and they have the option of using it during my vacation or reserving it for their own. 50% of my families take it during mine, and the other 50% reserve it for their own.

I do not take any personal days or sick days paid.

I do close for the federal holidays, paid, however.

IME, it seems that no matter how you do it, if the parents have to pay for even one day that services are not available, they do.not.get.it.

Once I upped my rate and said the words "You do NOT pay for days child care is closed" there was no more discussion, no more questions, no more further explaining, no confused parents and no one that tried to push back.

It's the weirdest thing but I figure it's got to be the way humans simply perceive things. I think it's in our nature to not want to have to do something (in this case pay) for something we do not get. kwim?

Funny thing is, that like I said above I actually make a bit more money over the year but parents don't seem to notice or care. I guess they are willing to pay $5 more per day than pay for a day they don't have services. :confused:

[Cat Herder]

You can add up your annual tuition cost, spread out over 52 weeks, then simply readjust a weekly rate increase over 50 weeks, instead.

It will give you two weeks paid vacation without parents having to "pay" for it at point of service. You sell it as "unpaid".

For those who hate confrontation, this may be a stress reducing remedy.

I take two weeks "unpaid" , and all federal holidays paid.

[Unregistered]

It is strange, isn't it? I had a family who compared my payment policies to their previous daycare, realized that financially the end result was EXACTLY the same, and still complained every time I had a day off with pay. I have two weeks of vacation at half-pay, plus the "big" holidays.