I pay about 12.50 per hour for 20 hours per week, 3 children, for this I get the housework done and dinner cooked but 2 of my children are at secondary school, so there is not a lot of hands on minding. The woman comes at 1pm, smallest child finishes school at 2.30pm. On holidays I stick with the same but my oldest is old enough to mind the youngest for a few hours. When the children were younger I sent them to summer camps in the morning and just had the minder in the afternoon. I did this mainly because at the time it was difficult to get a flexible person, may not be so difficult now! I pay prsi and 5 weeks holiday per year. There is no tax on that salary. You need to watch out for the bank holidays, they have to be paid for and can be tricky to calculate if the minder does not usually work on the day. I went for a salary, so the same amount is paid every week rather than expressing it per hour, we work out time in lieu if she works extra hours