If travel cuts across your nanny's normal work hours, you must pay it, and you must cover travel expenses. Overnight travel that replaces her regular duties is paid for those hours too, and standard overtime and recordkeeping rules keep applying the whole trip. The federal floor here is clear, even when family situations get complicated.
TL;DR:
- Travel time during a nanny's regular work hours, including flights and driving, must be paid at her regular or overtime rate if applicable, regardless of whether she is working actively or just traveling.
- A nanny's commute from her home to the family's residence remains unpaid, but any travel required during her scheduled hours or between multiple worksites is considered work and must be compensated.
- Families commonly provide a daily travel stipend of about $75 to $150 or a per diem, covering meals and incidentals, with private overnight lodging typically included.
- Proper recording of hours, travel expenses, and stipends using tools like the CareTracker app helps prevent disputes and ensures compliance with tax and labor laws.
- Clear pre-trip agreements on pay rates, stipends, lodging, and responsibilities help maintain transparency and reduce potential conflicts after travel.
Table of Contents
- Federal law basics: what the DOL and FLSA say about travel
- Which travel hours count as paid work
- Overtime, guaranteed hours, and overnight pay on trips
- Industry norms: per diems, stipends, and lodging
- How to calculate travel pay: two worked examples
- Taxes, payroll, and recordkeeping when your nanny travels
- Pre-trip checklist and conversation to have before you leave
- How CareTracker helps document travel hours and payroll
- Why fair pay on family trips matters more than it seems
- Try CareTracker or book a payroll consultation
- Sources
- FAQ
Federal law basics: what the DOL and FLSA say about travel
The Fact Sheet #79D issued by the Department of Labor sets the baseline for domestic service workers, including nannies. Travel time that overlaps a nanny's regular scheduled work hours counts as compensable time, whether she's driving, flying, or riding along as a passenger during that window.
Travel that keeps a nanny away from home overnight is worktime whenever it cuts across her normal work hours, according to DOL enforcement guidance under 29 CFR 785.39. That's the rule that trips up most parents: a nanny who flies with your family from 6 PM to 11 PM, right through her usual evening shift, has to be paid for those hours even if she's just sitting on a plane.
A few points worth keeping in mind:
- Passenger time outside a nanny's normal work hours generally isn't counted as work under enforcement policy.
- Travel between multiple worksites during the workday, per the DOL's direct-care FAQ, must be paid.
- Household employers are required to keep accurate records of all hours worked, travel included.
Which travel hours count as paid work
Not every mile on a family trip is paid the same way. The distinction that matters is whether your nanny is working, or simply along for the ride during her own time.
- Normal commute stays unpaid. Getting from her home to your house each day is not compensable, and that doesn't change on a travel day.
- Employer-required travel during scheduled hours is paid. If she's driving your kids to a hotel at 3 PM, squarely inside her workday, that's paid time.
- Active passenger duty is paid. A nanny buckling in car seats, entertaining a toddler, or handling a meltdown on a flight is working, regardless of the clock.
- Off-hour passenger time is typically unpaid. A five-hour flight that lands at midnight, well outside her normal shift, generally falls under the passenger-time exception if she's free to rest.
- Driving between stops during the day is paid. A road trip with several hotel changes means the driving time between them counts as hours worked.
Overtime, guaranteed hours, and overnight pay on trips
Overtime rules don't pause because everyone's on vacation. Once a nanny's compensable hours in a workweek pass 40, time-and-a-half kicks in exactly as it would at home.
Guaranteed hours matter just as much on the road. If your contract promises 45 hours a week and the trip only calls for 30 hours of active care, you still owe the guaranteed amount, since the shortfall isn't her fault.
Overnight responsibility is the part families most often get wrong. A few common approaches:
- Pay the regular hourly rate only for hours she's actively working or on call.
- Offer a flat overnight rate that covers general availability without hour-by-hour tracking.
- Combine both: hourly pay for active stretches, plus a smaller flat fee for light overnight responsibility, like listening for a baby monitor.
Industry norms: per diems, stipends, and lodging
Federal law sets the floor, but market practice fills in the rest. Families commonly add a daily travel stipend on top of wages to cover the extras of being away from home, food, incidentals, and the general inconvenience of travel.
- Daily stipends commonly range from about $50 to $200 or more, with many families settling around $75 to $150 per day.
- A per diem near $100 a day is a frequently referenced middle ground among agencies and experienced nanny employers.
- Private rooms are the norm; asking a nanny to share a room with a child overnight often comes with a higher stipend or a separate overnight fee.
- Some families skip a stipend when they're covering every meal and expense directly instead.
- Long international trips often combine a stipend with an additional overnight fee, especially when night wakings are likely.
Government per diem tables, like the GSA's published rates, can offer a useful reference point for reasonable meal allowances, even though they're built for federal travelers rather than household staff.
How to calculate travel pay: two worked examples
Running the numbers ahead of time prevents disputes once the trip is over.
- Single travel day overlapping a regular shift. Say your nanny earns $25 an hour and normally works 9 AM to 5 PM. Your flight departs at 2 PM. She's paid her regular rate from 9 AM through 5 PM, the hours that fall inside her normal schedule, regardless of what's happening at the airport during that window.
- Week-long trip with guaranteed hours. Say her contract guarantees 40 hours a week at $25 an hour. During the trip she works 46 hours across active care and overlapping travel. The first 40 hours pay at $25, and the remaining 6 hours pay at time-and-a-half, or $37.50, for a total of $1,225 that week.
A daily stipend of $100 covers meals and incidentals for a family's weeklong trip, on top of wages owed for hours worked, following the common per diem practice many households use. Whether that stipend counts as taxable wages or a non-wage reimbursement depends on documentation: reimbursements tied to actual receipts for specific expenses are generally treated differently from a flat allowance with no receipts required, so keep records either way.
Taxes, payroll, and recordkeeping when your nanny travels
Travel pay is still pay, and it flows through the same tax rules as any other wages. IRS Publication 15 lays out the withholding, Social Security, and Medicare obligations household employers carry for a nanny, and travel wages get folded into the same payroll calculations as regular hours.
For short trips, your home state's unemployment and wage rules typically continue to apply, since the nanny remains your employee working temporarily elsewhere. Longer relocations can raise different questions, so it's worth checking with a payroll professional if a trip stretches into weeks rather than days.
A few habits keep you compliant without much extra effort:
- Log daily hours worked during travel, separate from regular at-home hours.
- Keep receipts for any reimbursed expenses, distinct from stipends.
- Note overtime hours as they accrue rather than totaling them at the trip's end.
- Use a nanny timesheet template to standardize how you record hours across the trip.
Pre-trip checklist and conversation to have before you leave
A short conversation before you pack saves a bigger one after you're back.
- Confirm the hourly rate that applies during travel days and any overnight hours.
- Agree on whether a stipend or per diem applies, and the daily amount.
- Decide who covers meals, transportation, and incidentals, and how reimbursements work.
- Clarify lodging: private room, shared room, and whether that changes pay.
- Set expectations for rest breaks and any guaranteed hours during lighter days.
- Agree on when and how payroll will be processed after the trip.
Pro tip: Write the agreed pay rate, stipend, and hours in a quick email before you leave, so there's a record both of you can point back to later.
How CareTracker helps document travel hours and payroll
Tracking hours by memory during a trip is where most disputes start. The CareTracker app lets your nanny clock in and out from her phone, log schedule changes, and keep a single calendar of every shift, travel days included, so both of you have the same record.
Caregivers can use the app for time tracking and schedule approvals. When payroll gets complicated, whether from overtime math or a back-pay situation, CareTracker also offers a paid payroll consultation and prior-wage reporting cleanup service for families who want expert help sorting it out.
Why fair pay on family trips matters more than it seems
Treat a nanny's travel the way you'd treat a colleague's business trip: pay for the time, cover the costs, and don't expect free labor because the setting looks like a vacation. Skimping on travel pay breeds quiet resentment that shows up later in ways that have nothing to do with money. Offering a paid recovery day after a long trip costs little and says a lot.
— mercedes
Try CareTracker or book a payroll consultation
Tracking travel hours by hand is where most pay disputes start, and CareTracker's scheduling and time-clock app gives your nanny an easy way to log hours from her phone, request schedule changes, and keep everything in one calendar you both can check.
For trickier situations, like sorting out back pay from a past trip or setting up payroll correctly from scratch, the Premium consultation and Standard Payroll Consultation package walk you through it directly with a specialist.
| Need | Option | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Daily hour tracking during trips | Scheduling and Time-clock app | Free for caregivers |
| Payroll setup or calculation help | Premium consultation | $150 one-off |
| Fixing past payroll errors | Standard Payroll Consultation package | $150 one-off |
Start with the time tracker for your next trip, or book a consultation if this year's payroll needs a closer look.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
Sources
- Fact Sheet #79D: Domestic Service — Hours worked
- eCFR §785.39 — Travel away from home community
- IRS Publication 15 — Employer's Tax Guide
FAQ
How much should I pay my nanny to travel?
Pay her regular hourly rate for any travel time that overlaps her normal work hours, plus overtime once weekly hours pass 40. Many families also add a daily stipend, commonly $75 to $150, to cover meals and incidentals.
How much does a travel nanny earn?
Travel nanny pay varies by family, location, and experience, and there's no single published national figure. Compensation typically includes an hourly wage plus a daily stipend, with rates set through direct negotiation between the family and the nanny.
How do travel nannies get paid?
Travel nannies are typically paid through the same payroll process as regular household employment, with wages subject to standard withholding under IRS Publication 15. Any daily stipend or per diem is tracked separately from wages and may be treated differently depending on whether it's tied to receipts.
Is $20 an hour for a nanny good?
Whether an hourly rate is competitive depends heavily on your region, the nanny's experience, and the scope of duties, and no federal source sets a standard nanny wage. What federal law does require is that the hourly rate, whatever it is, extends to compensable travel hours and includes overtime once weekly hours exceed 40.