The main factors fuelling the quite steep rise in nannies' wages over the past few years have been a shortage of qualified or experienced nannies who can meet the greater desire by parents to employ the highest standard of private childcare they can possibly afford. Increased training provision for childcarers has now been put on the agenda by Government policymakers, but it will take some time to affect these 'market forces'.
In the press reports, there is also more than a hint of prejudice based on gender. Would they say the same about men's work? If another wages survey had reported similar pay rises for taxi drivers, or some other male-dominated occupation, the sense of outrage - or indeed newsworthiness - that they should earn 'so much' might not have been as great as it was over a group of young working women achieving such earnings levels. There is still a considerable gap between men's and women's wages in most types of work in the UK, and if nannies are bucking the trend because of their unique role in working parents' lives, then surely this is to be welcomed, and is good news for working women everywhere.
What the press also fails to emphasise is the long hours that most nannies have to work to earn such wages, and the great degree of flexibility that is required of them. Employers usually expect a lot in return for paying well. There is probably more give-and-take involved in nannying for a family than there is in most other types of work, and it is only right that this should be reflected in what a nanny is paid. Even the parents in the news stories who complain about the cost of childcare invariably end up qualifying their comments by hastily adding about their own nanny, 'Of course she's worth her weight in gold!'
