The Datum Report

Occupation 6116 · Caring, leisure and other service occupations

Nannies and au pairs

Half of full-time nannies and au pairs in the UK earn more than £38,447 a year, and half earn less.

Nannies and au pairs care for and supervise babies and young children in the homes of the children's families.

How people enter it

Entry does not depend upon academic qualifications but a qualification in childcare and/or relevant experience may be useful. NVQs/SVQs in Child Care and Education are available at levels 2 and 3. A minimum age limit of 18 years applies, and a DBS check is mandatory. Nannies are not required to register with Ofsted but can become a part of the Voluntary Ofsted Childcare Register.

What the work involves

• cares for children and babies and participates in their daily activities
• assists children to wash and dress
• changes babies’ nappies and clothes as necessary and makes up bottles for feeds
• mends, washes and irons children’s clothes and tidies their rooms
• organises activities and opportunities to socialise with other children
• takes children to school and other appointments
• helps develop child's learning, such as basic social skills

Also called

Au pair · Nanny

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for nannies and au pairs, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 1 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Childminders · Early education and childcare assistants · Educational support assistants · Playworkers · Teaching assistants