This lady made as much as $110,000 a 12 months as a nanny for the ultra-rich. Right here's what she discovered from the job

Stephanie Kiser got here to New York Metropolis in 2014 as a brand new school graduate, hoping to develop into a screenwriter. As a substitute, she spent the subsequent seven years as a nanny for rich households.

Kiser’s new memoir, “Needed: Toddler’s Private Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me concerning the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America,” particulars her surprising profession detour.

Her seven years as a nanny noticed her escorting one consumer’s daughter to $500-per-lesson literacy tutors on the Higher East Aspect, driving Porsches and Mercedes for on a regular basis errands and sheltering in place at a household’s house within the Hamptons in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her shoppers included households with dynastic wealth in addition to these with high-paying jobs equivalent to medical doctors and attorneys.

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In Kiser’s first nannying job, she was paid $20 an hour, excess of the $14 an hour she estimates she would have made as a manufacturing assistant beneath a short-term contract. Plus, she usually ended up working further hours.

“It often ended up being like $1,000 per week with every little thing that I used to be doing,” Kiser mentioned.

That first job opened doorways for higher-paid positions by way of nanny companies. In Kiser’s remaining 12 months as a nanny in the course of the pandemic, she estimates she took house about $110,000.

“Regardless that I had the least revered job of my buddies, I undoubtedly was making essentially the most,” mentioned Kiser, who’s now 32 and works at an ad-tech firm in New York Metropolis.

CNBC spoke with Kiser about among the monetary classes she discovered throughout her time as a nanny, and why she finally left the function.

(This interview has been edited and condensed for readability). 

Ana Teresa Solá: Once I first noticed this e-book, I considered “The Nanny Diaries,” a novel printed within the early 2000s after which tailored right into a film. What made you determine to show your story right into a memoir as an alternative of a novel? 

Stephanie Kiser: I learn “The Nanny Diaries” once I began my first job. It undoubtedly hit house on the time, however I did really feel prefer it was form of a satire. I did not wish to villainize the wealthy or the poor as a result of I’ve individuals I really like very dearly on either side. 

The intention of my e-book was to make a social commentary. It was my hope that I may bridge this understanding a bit between the 2 sides as a result of there’s this thought that poor individuals simply aren’t working arduous sufficient and wealthy persons are simply inherently unhealthy. 

I do not suppose that is essentially true, however I feel that people who find themselves rich, who’re using these individuals who actually need these jobs, they do have privilege and a possibility to both make somebody’s life higher or worse.

ATS: You point out that you possibly can not afford to work in an expert job in New York as a result of the pay was a lot decrease than you had been making as a nanny. Did you are feeling trapped?

SK: When my final boss learn this e-book, she felt unhappy and was like, ‘I did not understand you had been so depressing doing the job.’ I mentioned, ‘No, I wasn’t depressing doing the job. I beloved your youngsters a lot, however this was not the job I wished.’

I did really feel trapped. I felt like there’s nothing else I may presumably do, and it acquired slightly bit worse as time went on.

All my buddies had been rising in these jobs and so they had been getting extra expertise of their resume, and I wasn’t. I used to be very stationary on this place.

It wasn’t feeling to really feel like there’s nothing else I may presumably do. Now I’ve a unique job and that is the primary 12 months that I am incomes greater than I did nannying, which is nice, however the first couple of years after nannying had been undoubtedly actually arduous financially, making that shift.

ATS: A household supplied you a wage of $125,000, plus full well being and dental, a month-to-month metro card and an annual bonus. However you went with a unique household for much less pay. You talked about you had been ready on a contract. Why is that so necessary within the enterprise?

SK: A contract as a nanny is necessary as a result of there is no human assets; there is no legal guidelines defending you. Your employers are absolutely in command of every little thing and so they decide every little thing. [New York State does have a “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights” with a few protections.]

At a daily job, you will be like, ‘I labored 60 hours already this week, and I am not going to work extra.’ You may’t try this right here [with a nanny position.]

The contract is admittedly all you may have, and to not get the contract was actually worrisome. Your complete life was going to be a nanny for this household. And I used to be coming off of a job the place that had been actually tough, feeling like I wasn’t actually an individual, and I did not wish to settle for a job the place that was the case once more. 

ATS: Are you able to describe the variations between an au pair and a nanny?

SK: An au pair is allowed to work a sure variety of hours, like as much as 30 hours per week or 40 hours per week, however there’s a clear boundary as a result of they usually work for an company. The company that has despatched them has informed you very clearly they can not work greater than this.

They get a really small stipend, however they do get particular lodging, possibly they’ve their very own room. They’ve all their meals paid for, transportation. An au pair has extra issues in place to ensure that they are not taken benefit of. Nannies usually do not have these protections.

Nannies who come from companies are barely extra protected and people are sometimes those who get contracts. However these are the perfect of the perfect nannies; these are profession nannies who’ve been doing this for 50 years; they’ve raised so many youngsters and so they have superb references. Or it is a younger nanny that simply acquired right here after graduating from an awesome college and has like 10 abilities that they can supply. So this can be a luxurious, truthfully.

ATS: You additionally describe the uncertainty related to this job. It looks as if nannying work can have a low barrier to entry, with wage development potential, however then there are all these different dangers.

SK: I’ve recognized nannies who’ve gotten pregnant and so they inform their boss. There is no, ‘We’ll pay you three months maternity.’ there is no, ‘We’re gonna allow you to depart on month eight so you’ll be able to relaxation.’ There’s none of that.

You may by no means actually really feel protected within the job. In case you have a medical emergency, if something goes improper — I am certain there’s exceptions, however for essentially the most half, you are form of simply out of luck. It’s a actually dangerous profession in that sense. 

ATS: Based on the Pew Analysis Heart, about 47% of childless adults beneath 50 in 2023 mentioned they’re unlikely to ever have kids. What would that imply for nannies?

SK: I ponder if that applies to the form of those that I am writing about. I ponder if for them this can be a decline we’ll see or in the event that they’re form of outliers.

If it’s the case, I feel it is a actually significant issue. There are lots of people in New York who come right here and so they want one thing to get by, who babysit, possibly it is their after work job and that is how they do it. Or there’s individuals who do not have papers which can be actually restricted in what they’ll do, and quite a lot of occasions, housekeeping and nannying is the one possibility.

ATS:  On the finish of the e-book, you write that you just acquired a proposal as a private assistant for a CEO with a $90,000 wage and advantages. Was that place to begin beneath what you had been incomes as a nanny on the time?

SK: For certain. As a nanny, I had made $110,000 … So it was a big lower.

I needed to work in a short time and really arduous to get promoted. I used to be a private assistant and I used to be an government assistant, I modified firms final July and I turned a senior assistant, and that was the function the place I lastly made greater than I did nannying. And I do not suppose I may have finished this, made this transition, if my scholar mortgage funds weren’t paused due to Covid.

ATS: You write in your e-book that some households sign their wealth by having many kids. I am curious to listen to extra about that.

SK: I take into consideration the place I used to be born and the place I got here from, and anytime there was a household that had like 5 or 6 youngsters, it was form of like, ‘Effectively that is sensible, as a result of they weren’t rich.’ And then you definately come to New York and also you see somebody on Park Avenue that has 5 or 6 youngsters, and it is like, ‘That is how you already know they’re rich.’

Right here, for those who do have three youngsters, you begin sending them to preschool at $40,000 a 12 months, after which they are going to these elite faculties from kindergarten to twelfth grade which can be $60,000 a 12 months, and then you definately’re sending them to Harvard for 4 years.

And it is not even simply the education, it is more often than not you are sending three youngsters to this college, then you definately’re using a full-time nanny after they’ve non-public guitar classes.

ATS: What would you inform ladies of their 20s who’re within the footwear you had been in a number of years in the past? 

SK: Do issues in parallel. I do not suppose I might have been completely happy if I had finished simply the nannying. I could not have survived on simply writing, however I feel that by doing this in parallel, issues turned out precisely how they had been presupposed to be for me.

Nannying was so necessary for me as a result of not solely was I capable of earn a living to stay, nevertheless it allowed me to get a basis. Once I moved to New York, I had nothing. Now I’ve a totally furnished house, issues that you should be a totally functioning grownup. I’ve a canine, I will maintain him and I’ve a automobile. These are issues that I could not have finished with out being a nanny.