Ok so in my contract it states you pay for the holidays listed. What if you have a family gone the whole week of the paid holiday, thanksgiving for example, do you still make them pay the Holiday to you? I was talking with one of my friends who also does daycare and she said if a family takes the day before or day off after a Holiday she doesn't charge them. So now that has me wondering. I have a family that is taking the friday before Thanksgiving all the way through the week of Thanksgiving so I should I sitll charge her those 2 days? (Thanksgiving and the day after). She knows she has too I know they have no problem paying it but after my friend said that I was curious how others do it. If daycares did her way then seems we'd never would get paid the holiday because someone could just take the day after off and most people have it off anyways. just curious. I'm going to still charge her though, people just put that streak of "guilt" in me like I shouldn't maybe.

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If they are taking unpaid vacation then no, I wouldn't charge them.
but my families don't get unpaid vacation. Unless I'm the one taking it.
If they take time off they pay for the spot so if they take the week of Thanksgiving off then theyd' pay me for hte full week no matter what. If *I* took that week off then I'd only charge my families for Thurs & Fri (those are my paid holidays). Because I took Mon-Wed as unpaid vaca days - but Thurs and Fri are paid holidays according to my contract.
Make sense?

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I'd think that if parents knew that if they took off around a holiday you weren't going to charge them, that everyone would just do that to avoid paying. If they're ok with paying, then I'd charge them for the two days. They knew that they were paid holidays beforehand, right? If they had a problem with it they should have mentioned it up front.

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In my contract it says that I get certain holidays paid (and vacations) regardless of any other term. For example Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving are paid holidays for me, if a family takes the whole week off of Thanksgiving I still get paid for Thursday and Friday.

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Oh boy, here we go again..I am really getting confused on these "paid holiday" posts...

I look at it this way, If I normally work tues, thurs & fri, and if a holiday falls on that thurs or fri, yes I get paid a holiday because those are my normal work days, and since I rely on my income, I cant go with 1 or 2 less days pay. Getting a paid holiday is my "insurance".

Now if the holiday falls on a wed instead, why on earth should I get paid? I don't normally work that day, so why should I get a paid day off and get paid for 4 days instead of 3? I need no "insurance" to get my income that week.

If my client requests a week off, and yes, they do have to pay me for their week off, and if it just so happens that one day during that same week its a holiday, I would not request that they pay me 6 days instead of 5! Makes no sense to me what so ever!

Now if they take that same week off and they don't have to pay me for their vacation, then I still would not expect to be paid if one of those days during that week falls on a holiday! They still wouldn't be here weather there is a holiday that week or not.

When I worked for a company, if thursdays were not my reg scheduled day to work, and it was a holiday, I would not get paid for it. If it WAS a reg scheduled day and I was off for the holiday, then yes I would get paid for it. That was my benefit. That was my "insurance" I was still going to get my same income for the week. The idea is not to get more income than usual.

If your client is paying you for the week of her vacation, weather there is a holiday in her week or not, does not matter. She would be paying you for the week anyway, she should not pay you MORE than her week off though. And if she is taking the week off and you do not require her to pay you for her vacations, and there is a holiday in there, it shouldnt matter either, she should not pay you. A week's vacation is a weeks vacation and has nothing to do with the fact if a holiday falls in that week.

A paid holiday should only be paid to you as a benefit, so you will get the same pay for that week. Anything else is crazy in my opinion, and I would never pay it, or use a daycare that did.

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I agree with this, too. If you are taking the week unpaid, then I wouldn't charge them for the holiday only. In my contract, my families do not get unpaid vacations unless it's me taking the vacation. Therefore if a holiday happens to be in their vacation, I still get paid.

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No one pays for any vacation they take as long as they give me a two week notice. However in my contract I do get paid for Thanksgiving and the day after. To me if it's in my contract whether they decided to take vacation that week or not they know I get paid those 2 days right? I normally work those 2 days, same as if you get paid for their vacations those are normal days you work right? It's none of my business to ask my clients if they get paid for holidays, they signed the contract. Where I use to work I got paid holidays however if I took the day before or day after off I lost the pay.

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If the holiday lands on a day they would be in care, they pay for it.

But I charge for their holidays. The only time they don't pay for their space is if I am on vacation or otherwise unavailable.

SO, if family A decides to go on vacation and their regular days are Tues, Thurs, Fri, and a holiday lands on Wed., they would not have to pay for the holiday.

If family B goes on vacation and they are usually Mon-Fridays, then they pay for the full week as usual.

I NEVER require EXTRA money for a holiday unless the family needs me on the holiday. Then I charge time and a half.

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But you ALSO have in your contract that if they give you 2 wks notice for vacation time, you are getting it UNPAID. Just because the holiday falls on the week they are taking vacation and not paying you for it, doesn't mean you also get the paid holiday. You cant have it BOTH ways when both of these things ARE in your contract. You should only get the holiday paid if they were normally scheduled for that day, but due to the holiday, you are closed, not because they are on vacation.

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I'm really curious why more Providers don't use the monthly tuition method. I have a set rate per month that it costs if you are full time. If you're part time, I just figure the average amount of time you will be here, and charge that as a monthly rate. I let the parents know that this includes X number of paid holidays per year, X number of no-school or early release days (if in school), and that you don't get any money taken off if you leave your child with Grandma for the day or if they stay home sick. Easy Peasy. No questions asked, the check comes in at the same time, same amount, everytime. They can choose to pay once a month, or divide it into 2, 3, or 4 payments. Whatever suits them. Either way, it adds up to the same amount every month. I know what to expect and budget for, and they know what to expect and budget for. I don't have these issues of "do I charge them for a Friday off when Christmas falls on a Thursday?" or "do I charge them when their child was gone that day?" or any issues like that. Saves me and them the headaches!!

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I guess in the future you could specify that any unpaid vacation days (taken by the parents) may not coincide with scheduled, paid holidays.

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I allow 5 pre-schedule unpaid days for my families and the rest at 50%. So on Thanksigiving week, they would use up 3 unpaid days and pay my two holidays. I say 5 days to avoid the 'one free week' overlapping with paid days.

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Coming from a parents view, I would say if the dck was usually scheduled to be there on that holiday then "yes" you should charge the parent.

Example: I dck is usually there on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday then you should charge them for the day of Thanksgiving (Thursday), but not the Friday because they wouldn't normally be there.
I know every daycare has it's own policy though, so you have to make that call and make sure you stick with what ever decision you make!!

Edit to add: I think this would be regardless of dcp taking extra days off. So if they were to give you notice of taking the whole week of Thanksgiving off, I still think they should pay you for the holiday.

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My former center has a weekly and a monthly rate. Depending on how you look at it, they both come out cheap. The weekly rate would be cheaper than the monthly only when there are 4 weeks out of the month. The months were there are 5, those paying weekly rates have to pay for that 5th week. Whereas, yes the monthly rate was a bit more expensive monthly wise however when there were 5 weeks in a month, you didn't have to pay for that 5th week.

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But it also states that I get paid the holidays, it doesn't say unless you take the whole week off then you don't pay those days. It's not my fault they are taking the other days off, they are still not paying for mon-wed, I'm not charging more, so confusing. Maybe I shouldn't let people take unpaid vacations, but then I think most people in my area dont' charge for vacations.

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Yes this is a great way to explain it. This is how I do it. I, for example, am planning on using vacation time for the delivery of my baby (due Nov 27) for the week of Thanksgiving and the week after thanksgiving. I did not use vacation time this year (I closed for a week at no charge to be able to use my vacation time for my maternity leave) and so I have a paid week and a 2nd week at half rate (families also get 1 week unpaid and a 2nd week at half rate for their own vacations). I normally get Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving as paid holidays and I cam closed but since I decided to take the week off and use vacation time I get the week paid but I don't get extra for Thanksgiving and the day after as well even though this is a holiday that I should get paid. It's either one or the other.

Also if I was to stay open the week of Thanksgiving and the families decided to go on vacation, they would get prorated and pay only for Thursday and Friday.

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I agree with Joyce. I get paid once a month by all parents. Doesn't matter if they take time off or there's a holiday. Same amount every month.

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Thanks, I would never charge someone for the holiday if it didn't fall on their "normal" contracted day, like f they were here only mon and tuesday, or mon, wed, thur, I'd only charge them for thursday not friday the day after Thanksgiving. I also wont' charge such as the week of thanksgiving the family that is normally here wed, thur, friday, she asked to switch days, I'm not and dont' feel right charging her the holidays AND the mon and tues, I'm not out to make "more" and rip someone off. So I feel better now about sticking to my contract and charging for thursday and friday even if they are on vacation the other days thanks for all your input

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Mine has nothing to do with whether there are 28 days or 31 days in a month. Simply put, I figure out what it would be for a day, then multiply by 260 (five days per week times 52 weeks), then divide by 12 (12 months in a year) to get my monthly rate. If it's a school kid, I add in supplements for no-school and early release days. When all is said and done, it comes out the same as if they were paying daily, weekly, or whatever. Point is, it stays the SAME every month.

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Looks like everybody has their own way of doing this, so I'll chime in with my way, too

I give each family ten days each year (with two weeks notice required) that they can take off unpaid. If they want to take off the week of Thanksgiving, including the Thursday and Friday that I take as paid holidays, then I call that 5 of their 10 days of unpaid time. I have had parents who have taken that week off and gone ahead and paid me for the two holiday days, and in that case I only call it 3 of their 10 days for the year. The reason that I take "paid" holidays is so that my income remains consistent throughout the year, and so that I can spend holidays with my family without the daycare kids here. It doesn't matter to me if a family wants to take their unpaid days in the middle of June or over the holidays, the end result is the same.

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The only problem I see with this is that not all months have the same number of days in them (20-22 paid days) Also receiving payment weekly is hard enough as it is. I get paid in advance and I know for sure that new families would't be able to afford paying me the full $620 in advance plus the deposit. If they did I'd have to raise the rates to make up for the income I was losing compared to being paid weekly

I charge $155 weekly for full time:
$155 x 4 = Monthly $620 x 12 months = Yearly $7,440
Charging Weekly $155 x 52 weeks = Yearly $8,060
For me that's a loss of $620!! That's a month of lost pay per full-time child.
I'd have to charge $672 a month to make that up. I offer a small discount for families that choose to pay 4 weeks or more in advance but have yet to get any takers.

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Flawed math. Your figures are not accurate. You say $155 X 4 (or $620) is what you would charge for a month. That's not correct. $620 is what you would charge for FOUR WEEKS, not 1 month. They're not the same thing.

An average month has 21.67 days in it.

I average, as I said in my original comment. For your numbers it would work this way: 155 divided by 5 (days per week) equals 31. So you charge $31 per day. Ok, 31 times 260 (there are 260 weekdays in a year) equals $8,060 per year, as you said above. Ok, next you would do 8060 divided by 12 to get your AVERAGE monthly charge. That equals $671.67 per month - EVERY month is the same. No deductions, no additions, you can budget, they can budget.

Also, regarding your concern of getting paid weekly... as my original comment stated, they either pay once per month, or they can divide it into 2, 3, or 4 payments WITHIN THE SAME MONTH. And if you prefer pre-payment, they can pay these 1,2,3 or 4 payments during September, but they go towards October's care. They are always paying this month for next month. Either way, it's still $671.67 per month. Never changes for any reason. And it's still $8,060 per year.

Hope that makes more sense. Not trying to be a know-it-all or anything, but I've done it this way for 16 years, so I'm very familiar with the way the math works out. Lots of people seem to think that 4 weeks makes a month. Not true. You have to average. Hope this helps for anyone who is thinking of simplifying to this method of payment.

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That seems easier that way but I don't think that would fly in my area for in home daycares. The part they pay for their vacations or days they take off. Most here give so many weeks.

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That's the beauty of this method. You can figure for that scenario. When you come up with the yearly amount (before you divide by 12), just subtract X number of days that they don't have to pay. If you would normally give them 1 week for vacation, subtract 5 days out of that yearly amount. For two free weeks, subtract 10 days out, etc.

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I say if you allow them to take unpaid vacation, then no, I dont think you should charge them, yeah it states that you have paid holidays, but you don't charge for vacation, I think those would contradict each other.

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