January 1, The Suprising Occupation That’s Outpacing Inflation

A surprising occupation’s average hourly rate of pay is greatly outpacing inflation — babysitting.

The average hourly rate for a babysitter jumped 11% in 2021 to $20.57 an hour — far outpacing the 7% rate of inflation.

UrbanSitter, which connects families with child care and other household help, examined data from more than 10,000 families to calculate babysitting rates across the country.

The survey — UrbanSitter’s 11th annual — found an 11% rate hike in 2021. By contrast, babysitting rates grew just 3.9% from 2019 to 2020.

“The bumps that we saw this last year, it was just really disproportionate to anything we’ve seen previously,” said Lynn Perkins, the founder and CEO of UrbanSitter.

Annual increases of 4% to 5% were typical in the past, but “this is the first year we’ve seen it really outpace inflation significantly.”

New York City had the highest rates ($23.45 an hour for one child), followed by the San Francisco Bay Area ($23.32), and Seattle ($21.23). The lowest rates were in San Antonio, at $14 an hour for one child.

The national average rate for babysitters is $20.57 an hour for one child, $23.25 an hour for two and $24.35 an hour for three.

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Babysitting rates skyrocket