Wages For Babysitters Rise While Other Sectors Remain Stalled

The Department of Labor reports that last year’s national wage rate crept up only 2%, confirming what many US workers can already tell you: wages have stagnated. Not so for one high-demand job: babysitters. Over the past 30 years, teenage babysitting rates have risen nine times faster than the rate of inflation – commanding an average of $10 per hour. Depending on location and a sitter’s skill set, parents can shell out as much as $17 an hour for a night out. Megan Woolhouse covers the economy for the Boston Globe’s business section. Her article on babysitters making bank alerted us to this one sector of high wage growth.