Spin - Do you charge for YOUR vacation days?

[daisy]

After reading the responses in my vacation pay thread, I have come to realize many of you do not charge for your vacation days.

Why or why not?

[mickyc]

I posted in your other thread already but I will put it here. I don't know any daycare's in my area that charge for their vacation days. If I don't work I don't get paid. I don't charge for my sick days or my holidays. I do however charge for 10 stat/civic days.

[Daisy123]

I don't feel right about charging for days that I make myself unavailable. If I'm open and they choose not to send their child- that's another story. I don't believe that daycares in my area tend to charge either.

[dodge__driver11]

Its the norm for my area, and as most of my clients have jobs where their vacation is covered. I feel its only fair. So its what I do. I also recently changed my contract to have personal, sick or bereavement time of 5 days..

[Momof4]

No, I don't charge for my 3 weeks of vacation per year. However, I charge full fees for the other 49 weeks of the year no matter what happens, so if the families take any other vacation they pay. If they have any sick days, the closed stat days listed in my contract, snow days, whatever, they always know they pay full fees and I never have to answer a question about how much people owe at any time.

[superfun]

It's not the norm in my area. However, I rarely take time off, but most of my families all take the same time off. So I had 4 days off during spring break, and I had most of christmas break off. So far I'm happy with it. And none of the parents have to feel like they're paying for my vacation days, because I'm technically open.

[CrazyEight]

I'm with Daisy123, if they choose to keep their child home or have a relative take them for the day or whatever, but I am open and supposed to have the child, then I expect to be paid. I do give each family 2 weeks' vacation a year that they don't pay me, and I take 2 weeks' vacation that they don't pay me for. I don't know of anyone here that charges for vacation time. If I close for any reason, they don't pay. Luckily I haven't had to close for any sick days yet, but I did have to when my son was in the hospital and when my daughter had a specialist appointment in another city. I figure, if they have to pay someone else to take the kids because I can't have them, then they shouldn't have to pay me, but if they choose to pull them for the day but I still have a spot open and waiting for them, then they should be paying for it.

[daisy]

I am beginning to realize how fortunate I am - I have been doing this for 7 years - In my child care agreement I account for, 2 weeks vacation (usually in the summer but not always), the usual stats, the days between Christmas & New Years. I also have 6 sick/personal days and if necessary - 5 bereavement days. Lucky, I know. I also require payment at the beginning of each month in form of post-dated cheques so there is no haggling over fees. Again, I am feeling very, very fortunate with the choices I have been able to make regarding my business. I don't know I could do it otherwise.

[Lee-Bee]

I do charge full fees for my vacation (4weeks total). None of my families questioned this at all. I do not charge for sick days...I chose to do this because I feel that little bit less guilty when I have to close last minute and leave families scrambling. I'm sure in the future this will change as I'll feel less guilty about it the more their kids make me sick :-)

I did have a family question why I don't want to be paid for sick days as they thought it was odd and that I should be.

This same family insisted on paying me when I closed last minute to travel to an out of town funeral for 3 days. Since it was last minute and was not holidays I decided to just use unpaid "sick" days. This family felt that it was not appropriate not to pay me, that I wasn't in control of the situation.

I loved the fact they respect me and my daycare enough to insist on paying me more than I loved being paid for the 3 days :-)

Some families just really "get it" and I try hard to only enrol those families!

[5 Little Monkeys]

This is how I view it....I am a small business owner that provides a service out of my home. If I am not open and am unable to provide the service, why should families pay me? I would not pay my plumber, hair dresser, nail artist etc for times that I am not able to use them.

I am in the same area as mickyc and superfun and like they said, it's not the norm for our area anyways so even if I did charge, I likely would have a hard time finding clients.

When I started, I decided to charge for 11 stat/civic holidays and be closed but at a $10 less per day fee. I also charge $10 less per day if the parent takes holidays. At the time, I was the only one I knew that did this. It was my incentive for parents to choose me but also an incentive for them to keep their child home when they could which then in turn makes my day easier It has worked beautifully! I very very rarely have children here on parents days off or parents holidays and I am still paid but not feeding or caring for their child so in the end, it balances itself. The parents like that they are getting a deal on these days and I like that I'm down in numbers and can sometimes go out on field trips in the car.

I am very lucky that we are in a good financial spot to be able to offer the care I do at the price I charge. If we were in debt and I needed all the extra money I could get, I would likely not offer the discount for the families vacation but I would still not charge for my vacation as it just doesn't feel right to me. Each to their own though!

*Just as a side note....Does anyone know any other small business owners that still get paid if they are not working? (other than daycare providers I mean) Genuinely curious...not starting a big debate lol