Giving yourself a raise

[Judy Trickett]

Thanks ladies. I will be open for my 1 year mark on September 01st 2014. So from what you have all said I have 2 questions:

1) Do I raise my rates at MY 1 year mark or when the family started year mark?
2) Many of my part timers are b/a school students, and I charge by the hour. Do you think a $0.50 raise per hour is fair? Most are here for a combination of 2 hours a day, so that would equal to be $1 raise per day.

You should have a signed contract with each family and that contract should have an end date. I date every contract to end on Dec 31st. That means I am free to issue new contracts every year, that come into effect on January 1st with any changes I want in them. If the parents don't like the terms of the new contract then we part ways and I fill their spot (never actually had that happen, though).

So, when your contracts expire you change your fees on the new contract. If your contract doesn't have an expiry date, then you can issue new contracts and hope for the best, or you can start with new clients.

As for hourly school-agers. I think the hourly amount you raise your fee will depend on the demand in your area for B/A school agers. If it is a high demand area then, yep, you could go with 50 cents per hours. But, if you look at it from the stand point of normal daycare wherein you raise your fees $1 per day, per year, then a 50 cent per hour raise on B/A school care is kind of high considering they are there a fraction of the time a normal daycare child is there. Normal dckids are in care about 9 hours or so and only getting their fee increased by a dollar a day. But then a B/A kid is there for two hours and getting the same dollar for dollar increase. So, just be prepared for that math to come up from a parent.