Nanny share vs nanny vs daycare vs au pair

Compare the cost where you live

Center prices: medians for licensed centers in the county or the survey region that includes it. Texas: the 2026 Texas Child Care Market Rate Survey, which reports full-day rates for each of 28 workforce areas, so neighboring counties share a price. California: the 2021 state survey’s county medians (monthly price × 12 ÷ 52), raised by national child care inflation. Other states: the National Database of Childcare Prices (mostly 2022), in estimated August 2026 prices; in many states its county figures are regional or modeled estimates. Indiana and New Mexico aren’t in it. Each source groups ages a little differently: Texas prices are for infants 0–11 months, toddlers 18–23 months and 3-year-olds; California’s survey has one rate for children under 2 (used for infants and toddlers) and one for ages 2 to 4; the national database’s groups are infants under 2, toddlers aged 2 and preschoolers aged 3 to 4. The nanny rate starts at Care.com’s national average for nanny jobs (2026). Care.com puts each family’s cost in a share at about two-thirds of a solo nanny, which works out to the nanny earning about a third more (Care.com). Overtime: 1.5 times pay after 40 hours a week for a nanny who doesn’t live with you; in California, also after 9 hours a day for nannies who spend no more than 20% of their time on other work (the calculator assumes a five-day week). Taxes use 2026 rates for a household employer and assume 52 paid weeks; they leave out workers’ compensation insurance, payroll services and tax breaks. Au pair: the agency minimum below, for up to 45 hours a week whatever the number of children.

Daycare vs nanny vs nanny share vs au pair

National costs: Care.com’s 2026 Cost of Care report and nanny share guide; au pair: Cultural Care’s published pricing. Local center prices are in the calculator above.

Hiring a nanny

A nanny cares for your children in your home, on your schedule. Care.com’s 2026 report puts the national average at about $870 a week for 40 hours and one child, or $21.75 an hour, based on the rates families posted for nanny jobs (Care.com); nannies’ own posted starting rates averaged $20.33 an hour in Houston and $24.19 in San Diego in May 2026 (Care.com). Rates are often higher for more children, more experience or extra duties.

• Minimum wage and overtime. A nanny is covered by the federal minimum wage if she earns at least $3,000 a year from you or works more than 8 hours a week (29 U.S.C. §206(f)), and a nanny who doesn’t live with you earns 1.5 times her pay for hours over 40 a week; live-in nannies are exempt from federal overtime (U.S. Department of Labor). Texas follows the federal $7.25 minimum. California’s minimum is $16.90 an hour in 2026 (California DIR), higher in many cities, and a nanny who spends no more than 20% of her time on work other than caring for the children also earns overtime after 9 hours in a day (Domestic Worker Bill of Rights); nannies with more household duties earn it after 8 hours a day.
• No license, no inspections. Neither state licenses nannies who work in your home: Texas regulates child care given “in a place other than the child’s own home” (Texas HHS), and California doesn’t license babysitters and nannies who come to your home (Berkeley Parents Network’s guide to California licensing). The background check is up to you.
• Background checks. In California, ask whether the nanny is registered with TrustLine, the state’s registry of in-home caregivers who have passed a fingerprint check with the state Department of Justice and the FBI and a check of the Child Abuse Central Index; parents can verify a registration by phone at 800-822-8490. Texas has no registry for nannies: check references, and run a background check with the candidate’s written permission.
• A written agreement should cover pay and overtime, the schedule, paid holidays and time off, what happens when either of you is sick, duties beyond child care, and how much notice either of you must give.

Nanny taxes in 2026

If a nanny works in your home and you decide how the work is done, she is your household employee, even if you found her through an agency, unless the agency controls the work (IRS Publication 926).

• Social Security and Medicare: once you pay $3,000 in cash wages in 2026, you and the nanny each owe 7.65% of her pay. You withhold her half from her paycheck or pay it for her (IRS Topic 756).
• Federal unemployment (FUTA): once you pay $1,000 in any calendar quarter, 0.6% of the first $7,000 after the usual credit. California employers pay more because of a federal credit reduction: 1.2% more for 2025 (EY) and an expected 1.5% for 2026, set after November 10, with a possible further add-on unless it’s waived (American Payroll Association).
• Texas unemployment tax: due once you pay $1,000 in cash wages in a calendar quarter (Texas Workforce Commission); a new employer generally pays 2.7% of the first $9,000.
• California: once you pay $750 in a quarter, register with the EDD within 15 days and withhold 1.3% State Disability Insurance from her pay. At $1,000 in a quarter you also pay unemployment insurance (3.4% for a new employer) and the 0.1% employment training tax, each on the first $7,000 (EDD; Household Employer’s Guide).
• Income tax withholding is optional, only if the nanny asks and you agree. You file Schedule H with your own return and give her a W-2.

Paying on the books costs more up front but lets you use a dependent care FSA or the child and dependent care credit: you’ll need the nanny’s name, address and taxpayer ID number (IRS Publication 503). It also gives the nanny Social Security credit and unemployment insurance.

How a nanny share works

Two families, sometimes three, hire one nanny together and split the cost. The nanny earns more than with one family, and each family pays less than a solo nanny: Care.com puts a share at about $580 a week per family, roughly two-thirds of a private nanny, which works out to the nanny earning about a third more (Care.com). Care usually happens at one family’s home or alternates between them.

• Taxes: often each family is the employer for its part of the pay, with its own payroll and W-2. Ask a tax professional or payroll service how to set it up.
• Agree on everything in writing: pay and raises, whose home and when, sick children (can a sick child come?), naps and screen time, discipline, supplies and food, holidays, and what happens if one family leaves.
• Where it happens matters. If the nanny cares for other families’ children in her own home, it becomes family child care: in Texas a home caring for 1 to 3 unrelated children must be listed with the state and one caring for 4 or more must be registered, within registered-home limits (Human Resources Code §42.052); in California a home caring for children from more than one other family needs a license (Health and Safety Code §1596.792). A share hosted in one of the families’ homes is different: in California it needs no license as long as no one who lives there is the one providing the care; Texas’s home permits apply to care in the caregiver’s own home, so a share in a parent’s home generally isn’t one of them, but ask your local Texas HHS Child Care Regulation office if you’re unsure. See home daycare vs a center for the home permit rules.
• Insurance: check that your homeowner’s or renter’s policy covers another family’s child in your home.

Au pairs

An au pair is a young adult from another country, aged 18 to 26, who lives with your family for a year on a State Department exchange visa and provides child care in return for a stipend, room and board (22 CFR §62.31).

• Hours: no more than 10 a day and 45 a week, with at least a day and a half off each week, one full weekend off a month, and two weeks of paid vacation.
• Cost: a weekly stipend of at least $195.75 (more in Massachusetts, where state minimum wage rules apply; Cultural Care), plus the agency’s program fees; one large agency puts the minimum at about $1,760 a month averaged over the year (Cultural Care). You also pay up to $500 toward the au pair’s required classes and provide a private bedroom and meals; if she’ll drive, add her to your car insurance.
• Babies: an au pair can’t be placed with a family that has a baby under 3 months unless a parent or another responsible adult is home, and families with children under 2 need an au pair with at least 200 hours of infant care experience.
• Can suit families with several children or long or irregular hours, because the cost doesn’t rise with each child. Less suited to families without a spare room or who need more than 45 hours a week.

Daycare: the option with a public record

A licensed center often costs the least for one child, has several adults and backup when a teacher is out, and is the only one of these options the state licenses and inspects. That means you can read its inspection record before you enroll: every violation the state cited, how serious it was, and any complaints the state confirmed. For example, the median full-time price for infants at centers in the Gulf Coast workforce area (13 counties), which includes Harris County, is about $229 a week, and Harris County has 1,477 licensed centers.

The trade-offs: set hours, a sick child stays home, more children per adult, and for babies, a waitlist in many areas. See how to choose a daycare and look up a center below.

Common questions

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