2026 Babysitting Rates
The 2026 going rate is $22.00 an hour for one child. That is the median of rates actually paid on completed bookings across 30 US metro areas, adjusted for what a dollar buys in each place. State averages run from $19.13 in Arkansas to $24.36 in California. Add about 11 percent for a second child, 10 percent past 10pm, and 15 percent for a booking made with less than 24 hours notice.
Updated September 2026 · 51 states · 30 metro areas · Free, no signup
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If you want one number and nothing else: $22 an hour for one child, $24 for two. Everything below is how that number moves.
Federal minimum wage vs. what the work pays
$7.25 → $22.00
The most repeated advice in this subject is "start around minimum wage." Minimum wage is a legal floor, not a market rate. It is roughly a third of what babysitting actually pays.
Each state figure is the national base adjusted for that state's price level, then checked against its minimum wage as a hard floor. Two children is the same figure plus 11 percent.
| State | One child | Two children | State minimum wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $19.54 | $21.69 | $7.25 |
| Alaska | $22.52 | $25.00 | $14.00 |
| Arizona | $22.15 | $24.59 | $15.15 |
| Arkansas | $19.13 | $21.23 | $11.00 |
| California | $24.36 | $27.04 | $16.90 |
| Colorado | $22.67 | $25.16 | $15.16 |
| Connecticut | $22.79 | $25.30 | $16.94 |
| Delaware | $21.96 | $24.38 | $15.00 |
| District of Columbia | $24.18 | $26.84 | $18.40 |
| Florida | $22.75 | $25.25 | $14.00 |
| Georgia | $21.18 | $23.51 | $7.25 |
| Hawaii | $24.19 | $26.85 | $16.00 |
| Idaho | $21.01 | $23.32 | $7.25 |
| Illinois | $21.99 | $24.41 | $15.00 |
| Indiana | $20.53 | $22.79 | $7.25 |
| Iowa | $19.31 | $21.43 | $7.25 |
| Kansas | $19.81 | $21.99 | $7.25 |
| Kentucky | $19.83 | $22.01 | $7.25 |
| Louisiana | $19.41 | $21.55 | $7.25 |
| Maine | $21.35 | $23.70 | $15.10 |
| Maryland | $23.09 | $25.63 | $15.00 |
| Massachusetts | $23.27 | $25.83 | $15.00 |
| Michigan | $21.17 | $23.50 | $13.73 |
| Minnesota | $21.70 | $24.09 | $11.41 |
| Mississippi | $19.13 | $21.23 | $7.25 |
| Missouri | $19.98 | $22.18 | $15.00 |
| Montana | $20.82 | $23.11 | $10.85 |
| Nebraska | $19.82 | $22.00 | $15.00 |
| Nevada | $22.00 | $24.42 | $12.00 |
| New Hampshire | $22.92 | $25.44 | $7.25 |
| New Jersey | $23.94 | $26.57 | $15.92 |
| New Mexico | $20.29 | $22.52 | $12.00 |
| New York | $23.74 | $26.35 | $16.00 |
| North Carolina | $20.75 | $23.03 | $7.25 |
| North Dakota | $19.57 | $21.72 | $7.25 |
| Ohio | $20.41 | $22.66 | $11.00 |
| Oklahoma | $19.33 | $21.46 | $7.25 |
| Oregon | $22.74 | $25.24 | $15.55 |
| Pennsylvania | $21.47 | $23.83 | $7.25 |
| Rhode Island | $22.50 | $24.98 | $16.00 |
| South Carolina | $20.62 | $22.89 | $7.25 |
| South Dakota | $19.49 | $21.63 | $11.85 |
| Tennessee | $20.21 | $22.43 | $7.25 |
| Texas | $21.35 | $23.70 | $7.25 |
| Utah | $21.75 | $24.14 | $7.25 |
| Vermont | $21.55 | $23.92 | $14.42 |
| Virginia | $22.24 | $24.69 | $12.77 |
| Washington | $23.54 | $26.13 | $17.13 |
| West Virginia | $19.69 | $21.86 | $8.75 |
| Wisconsin | $20.70 | $22.98 | $7.25 |
| Wyoming | $20.39 | $22.63 | $7.25 |
Minimum wages change in 18 jurisdictions on 1 January 2027, and Florida's rises on 30 September 2026. This table is refreshed before those dates.
Metro figures come from rates actually paid on completed bookings, not from surveys of what people think they should pay.
| Metro area | One child | Two children |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | $29.63 | $33.70 |
| Seattle, WA | $27.70 | $30.79 |
| Honolulu, HI | $27.22 | $29.38 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $26.11 | $29.22 |
| New York City, NY | $26.03 | $28.77 |
| Boston, MA | $25.52 | $27.78 |
| North Jersey, NJ | $25.38 | $26.52 |
| San Diego, CA | $24.39 | $27.06 |
| Denver, CO | $24.05 | $26.60 |
| Portland, OR | $23.98 | $27.07 |
| Washington, DC | $23.95 | $26.01 |
| Reno-Tahoe, NV | $23.90 | $30.50 |
| Charlotte, NC | $23.56 | $28.67 |
| Nashville, TN | $23.43 | $24.53 |
| Austin, TX | $23.39 | $27.58 |
| Sacramento, CA | $22.79 | $24.32 |
| Raleigh/Durham, NC | $22.23 | $24.29 |
| Chicago, IL | $22.21 | $25.83 |
| Houston, TX | $21.69 | $23.68 |
| Orlando, FL | $21.68 | $23.00 |
| Minneapolis, MN | $21.35 | $23.46 |
| Tampa Bay, FL | $21.26 | $25.58 |
| Las Vegas, NV | $21.16 | $23.08 |
| Miami, FL | $21.15 | $26.56 |
| Atlanta, GA | $20.78 | $23.74 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $20.59 | $23.63 |
| Philadelphia, PA | $20.10 | $21.00 |
| Columbus, OH | $19.98 | $20.71 |
| Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX | $19.25 | $22.58 |
| San Antonio, TX | $18.21 | $21.94 |
The standard advice is to add a flat dollar per child. That has been wrong for about twenty years and it is the most common way sitters lose money without noticing.
| Children | Rate on a $22 base | What you added |
|---|---|---|
| One | $22.00 | — |
| Two | $24.42 | $2.42 |
| Three | $26.40 | $1.98 |
| Four | $28.16 | $1.76 |
Each additional child adds less than the one before. That is not generosity, it is how the work actually behaves: two children entertain each other, and a fourth in a house that already has three is not the same jump as a second in a house that had one.
An infant under one is different. Add about $1.50 an hour on top, because an infant does not split your attention, it takes all of it.
Eight hours at the 2026 base rate is $176 for one child and $195 for two. That is the arithmetic. What people usually get wrong is everything around it.
| Booking length | One child | Two children | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hours | $88 | $98 | A short evening |
| 5 hours | $110 | $122 | The most common booking |
| 6 hours | $132 | $147 | Dinner through bedtime |
| 8 hours | $176 | $195 | A full day, or a long night out |
| 10 hours | $220 | $244 | Usually crosses 10pm, add 10% |
| 12 hours | $264 | $293 | Price as an overnight instead |
Do not quote a flat day rate without saying what it covers. "$150 for the day" sounds generous until the day turns out to be ten hours and includes lunch, a school run and a bath. Quote the hourly rate and the expected hours, and say what happens if it runs over.
Two things to watch on a booking this long:
Past about twelve hours you are no longer pricing a long day, you are pricing an overnight, and the two work differently. That is covered further down.
The rule most teenagers are handed is "charge your age." It is not terrible at fourteen and it falls apart immediately after, because it tells a seventeen year old with three years of experience to charge $17, which is not based on anything.
| Where you are | Multiplier | On a $22 local base |
|---|---|---|
| 12 to 14, first year | 0.70× | $15.40 |
| 15 to 17 | 0.85× | $18.70 |
| Adult, under a year | 0.95× | $20.90 |
| Adult, one to three years | 1.00× | $22.00 |
| Adult, four to six years | 1.10× | $24.20 |
| Adult, seven years or more | 1.15× | $25.30 |
| Professional nanny | 1.25× | $27.50 |
| Newborn care specialist | 1.75× | $38.50 |
Those teenage figures are what teenage sitters actually get paid, and they are lower than the work is worth. If you are doing the same job an adult would do, in the same house, for the same children, the gap is not skill. It is that nobody has told you to ask for more.
These are the fees almost nobody charges, and together they are usually worth more than a raise on the base rate.
| Situation | What to add | On a 5 hour booking |
|---|---|---|
| Booking runs past 10pm | +10% | +$11 |
| Holiday, including New Year's Eve | +22% | +$24 |
| Booked with under 24 hours notice | +15% | +$17 |
| Driving the children | +$2/hr | +$10 plus mileage |
| Household work beyond the children | +$2.50/hr | +$13 |
| Pets | +$1/hr | +$5 |
Past 10pm applies to the whole booking, not only the late hours. The cost is not the specific minutes after ten, it is that the entire evening is now a late one.
Short notice is the premium people find hardest to charge, because the request usually arrives as somebody else's emergency. You are not charging for their emergency. You are charging for rearranging your evening on two hours notice. A vet charges out of hours and nobody thinks the vet is unkind.
This is the biggest gap in the whole subject. There is no convention, so most people quote a flat figure and hope. Flat figures are where the worst rates in babysitting happen: $100 for a fourteen hour overnight works out at $7.14 an hour, below federal minimum wage, for a night in someone else's house away from your own bed.
Price it as two jobs stacked instead. Active hours at your normal rate. Sleeping hours at about half, because being on call is not the same as being off duty. And the morning is active, which is the part everyone forgets.
| Block | Hours | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6pm to 9pm, children awake | 3 | $22 | $66 |
| 9pm to 7am, sleeping | 10 | $11 | $110 |
| 7am to 9am, awake again | 2 | $22 | $44 |
| Quoted as one number | 15 | $220 |
For several nights while a family travels, quote a day rate built the same way so you can show your working. A 24 hour day comes to roughly $418 on a $22 base. Set a start and an end time: "Thursday 5pm to Sunday 11am" is a booking, "the weekend" is a booking that ends whenever their flight lands.
A nanny is not a babysitter who works more hours. It is a different job with a different rate and, in the United States, a different legal category.
| Per hour | 40 hour week | A year, 50 weeks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Experienced babysitter | $25.30 | $1,012 | $50,600 |
| Professional nanny | $27.50 | $1,100 | $55,000 |
| Newborn care specialist | $38.50 | $1,540 | $77,000 |
Those are national figures on a $22 base. Locally a nanny rate runs from about $23.90 an hour in the lowest-cost states to $30.45 in California, before any modifiers.
The move from sitter to nanny is usually worth $4 to $6 an hour, and it is the largest single raise available in this line of work. The signs it has already happened:
The thing that makes a nanny rate a nanny rate is guaranteed hours: the agreed hours are paid whether or not the family uses them, the same way anyone with a shift is paid for the shift. If that is not written down, it does not exist. A family that takes three unpaid weeks each summer removes roughly $3,300 from a $27.50 hourly year.
Casual babysitting is usually exempt casual labor. Regular nannying generally makes you a household employee, which carries obligations for the family above an annual threshold. Most full-time nannies are in that category and a lot of them do not know it. This is general information, not tax advice, and the answer depends on your state and your hours.
The line that holds up, because it is about who made the mess rather than how hard the task is:
The rule
You clean up what the children make. You do not clean up what the household makes.
Their dinner dishes, their toys, their bath: yours. The parents' breakfast dishes from that morning, the family laundry, vacuuming the house: not yours, unless it is agreed and paid for.
Most rate pages quote an average without saying where it came from. Here is the method, so you can check it or rebuild it.
The overnight structure is a model rather than a published standard, because no published standard exists. It is validated by checking that it reproduces published flat overnight rates, which it does to within a few dollars.
Eleven of the twenty modifiers on this page are honest estimates rather than measured figures. No source anywhere quantifies what a CPR certificate or a last-minute booking is worth per hour. The per-child percentages and the metro rates are measured; the credential, holiday and short-notice premiums are reasoned estimates, and we say so rather than dressing them up as data.
Everything above is free and always will be. It is also, on its own, not usually enough.
The most common thing sitters say is not that they cannot find the rate. It is that they know the rate and cannot say it out loud. The money goes missing in the four seconds after a parent asks how much they owe you, in the family you have sat for since freshman year whose rate has not moved in two years, and in the neighbour you will see at the grocery store on Saturday.
That is a conversation problem, not a pricing problem, and it is the expensive one.
The Script is eighteen chapters of the exact words: quoting a new family, answering "how much do we owe you" in a doorway, and raising your rate on a family you already have. $47, instant PDF, sixty day guarantee.
See what is in itEight hours at the 2026 national base rate is $176 for one child and $195 for two. Do not quote a flat day rate without saying what it covers: quote the hourly rate and the expected hours, and say what happens if it runs over. If eight hours runs past 10pm the late-night premium applies to the whole booking, and past about twelve hours you should price it as an overnight instead.
A professional nanny rate is about 1.25 times the local babysitting base, which is roughly $27.50 an hour nationally, or $1,100 for a 40 hour week. An experienced babysitter is around $25.30 and a newborn care specialist about $38.50. The move from sitter to nanny is usually worth $4 to $6 an hour and is the largest single raise available in this work.
Past 10pm is worth about 10 percent on the whole booking. Holidays are 20 to 25 percent. A booking made with under 24 hours notice is about 15 percent. Driving is around $2 an hour plus mileage, household work beyond the children is about $2.50 an hour, and pets are about $1. Together these are usually worth more than a raise on the base rate.
The national base rate is $22.00 an hour for one child. That figure is the median of rates actually paid on completed bookings across 30 US metro areas, adjusted for regional cost of living. Your own number depends on where you live, how many children, your experience, and the time of day. State averages run from $19.13 in Arkansas to $24.36 in California.
About 11 percent more, not the flat dollar most advice suggests. On a $22 base that makes two children $24.42 an hour. A third child adds roughly 8 percent on top of that. Each additional child adds less than the one before, because children entertain each other.
Around 70 percent of the local adult rate in the first year, which on a $22 base is about $15 an hour. A 15 to 17 year old with some experience is closer to 85 percent, or about $19. The old rule of charging your age falls apart quickly: it tells a 17 year old with three years of experience to charge $17, which has nothing to do with the market.
Price it as two jobs rather than one flat fee. Charge your normal hourly rate while the children are awake, and about half your rate for sleeping hours, because being on call is not the same as being off duty. The morning counts as active time. A typical 6pm to 9am overnight works out around $220 on a $22 base.
Yes, and almost nobody does. Past 10pm is worth about 10 percent on the whole booking, not just the late hours. Holidays including New Year's Eve are worth 20 to 25 percent. A booking made with under 24 hours notice is worth about 15 percent.
No. Minimum wage is a legal floor, not a market rate. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 while the babysitting market pays around $22. Anchoring to minimum wage is the single most expensive piece of advice in this subject.
Those are separate from childcare and are priced separately. Household work beyond the children's own mess is about $2.50 an hour on top. Driving is around $2 an hour plus mileage. Pets are about $1 an hour. The line that holds up is simple: you clean up what the children make, not what the household makes.
Say it before you are asked, state it as a fact rather than a question, and then stop talking. The most common way sitters lose money is filling the silence after the number with something like “but I'm flexible.” Quoting in a text message rather than in person makes this considerably easier.
