How Much Does a Nanny Cost in BC? (2026 Pricing Guide)

In-home childcare in British Columbia starts at **$32 an hour**, and because there is a three-hour minimum, the smallest booking you can make costs **$96**. A full-time nanny placement is a separate one-time fee of $500 or $1,000, depending on how long you need someone.

That is the short answer. The longer answer is that the rate moves for reasons most families do not expect — and headcount is not one of them.

The 2026 rate card

These are the rates Puffin Services charges, and they are identical in all 16 municipalities we serve. Surrey, Vancouver, Chilliwack, Harrison Hot Springs: same number.

| Care type | Rate |

| --- | --- |

| Standard care, 12 months and up | $32/hr |

| Any booking with an infant under 12 months present | $38/hr |

| Overnight, 10:00 PM – 6:00 AM | $36/hr |

| Overnight with an infant present | $42/hr |

| After-school pickup and care | $36/hr |

| Event nannies | $40/hr, $60/hr past 8 hours |

Three-hour minimum on childcare bookings.

What changes the price — and what doesn't

**An infant changes it.** If a child under 12 months is in the home, the whole booking is billed at the infant rate, including the hours your six-year-old is also there. That is not a surcharge dressed up as a policy. Caring for a newborn alongside older siblings is a genuinely different job: safe-sleep monitoring, feeding windows, and a caregiver who cannot look away.

**The number of children does not change it.** One child or four, the rate is the same. There is no per-child fee and no sibling uplift. If you have three kids at home and one of them is eight months old, you pay $38 an hour — not $38 plus extras.

**The clock changes it.** Overnight hours are the ones between 10 PM and 6 AM. A booking that runs 7 PM to midnight is billed as five hours: three at the daytime rate and two at the overnight rate. The split is calculated automatically, not estimated.

**Your postal code does not change it.** A family in Hope pays what a family in Vancouver pays. No travel surcharge, no zone pricing, no downtown premium.

What a full-time nanny placement costs

Placement is a different product from hourly care. You are not paying for hours; you are paying once for a search.

That fee covers sourcing candidates across BC, CRRP criminal record checks, reference verification, and two to three matched candidates presented to you. Your family profile is reviewed within one business day, and matches arrive within **7–10 business days**. Every placement includes one complimentary re-match within 30 days.

What the fee does not cover is the nanny's wages. Once you hire someone directly, you are their employer — you set the salary, run payroll, and carry the obligations that come with it. Budget for that separately, because it is by far the larger number.

Why agency rates sit above private arrangements

A private nanny hired through a Facebook group will quote you less per hour. That gap is not margin; it is the cost of things that have to happen somewhere.

**Background clearance.** Every Puffin caregiver clears a provincial CRRP vulnerable-sector check before a first shift, plus reference verification and ongoing certification checks. Done properly, that costs money and takes weeks.

**WorkSafeBC.** Our caregivers are employees. We register them and pay the premiums. When a caregiver is hired privately, that coverage does not appear by itself.

**Insurance.** Commercial general liability covering every shift is priced into the hourly rate rather than billed separately.

**Payroll.** Wages, remittances, and record-keeping are ours to run, not yours.

Hire privately and none of that disappears — it moves onto your kitchen table.

What to actually budget

A weekly date night, three hours, one toddler: **$96 a week**, about **$416 a month**.

Two after-school pickups a week, three hours each: **$216 a week**.

An overnight with a newborn, 10 PM to 6 AM: **$336**.

A full-time placement plus a nanny's salary: the $500 or $1,000 fee once, then whatever you and your nanny agree — which in the Lower Mainland is where the real budgeting starts.

If you want a number for your own situation rather than an example, the booking flow prices it before you enter a card.