Can My Home Daycare Afford an Assistant?

Name the work and the schedule

Describe the help you need in one sentence: “I need another approved adult during lunch, toileting, and the transition to rest.” Then list the hours and duties that would meet that need.

Compare a full schedule with a smaller schedule focused on your busiest hours. Either arrangement must meet your program’s staffing requirements. Confirm qualifications, clearances, permitted duties, supervision, insurance, and any capacity change before relying on the hire.

Include the full employer cost

Begin with regular paid hours × paid weeks × hourly wage. Add paid time that is outside that schedule, other gross pay, employer costs, and recurring employment expenses. Keep one-time setup spending separate.

Required training, orientation, and work performed during meals need proper wage-and-hour treatment. Use current labor guidance and a payroll professional for the actual arrangement. The calculator’s employer-cost allowance is a budget estimate, not a payroll tax rate.

• Regular wages and extra paid orientation or meeting hours.
• Overtime gross pay, bonuses, or other pay not already included.
• Employer-related charges, insurance, payroll service, benefits, and training fees.
• One-time recruitment and setup costs, with each expense counted once.

Decide how much cash is available

Start with your existing operating plan. Protect current expenses, owner-income needs, taxes, debt payments, and chosen reserves. The cash left after those commitments is the amount available before this hire.

Owner draws and reserves are cash-planning choices here; they are not being described as deductible expenses. If you use the Money & Enrollment Planner, check which commitments are already included before transferring its remaining amount.

Add only realistic new collections the permitted arrangement would make possible, less the extra nonstaff costs of earning them. Hiring an assistant does not automatically authorize more children.

Work through a complete hiring example

All figures below are fictional. This schedule uses 20 paid hours a week for 50 weeks at $18 an hour, plus 20 paid orientation or meeting hours outside that weekly schedule. There is no assumed new enrollment.

Test the cushion

Suppose the program has $24,000 available after its existing commitments. Subtract the $21,913.20 first-year staffing cost. The result is a $2,086.80 cushion for the year—about $173.90 a month on average.

Now reduce available cash by $3,000 while holding staffing costs steady. The first-year result becomes a $913.20 shortfall. A positive starting estimate can become unaffordable when enrollment or collections fall.

Save the original scenario and change one uncertain assumption at a time. Consider a later start or a different permitted schedule if needed. Keep required paid time and known employer costs in every version.

Check each payday before making an offer

Annual totals do not show when money arrives. Put the actual pay dates, tuition and subsidy receipt dates, setup purchases, and low-enrollment periods into your monthly cash plan.

Use the companion calculator for the staffing scenario and the existing business planner for the whole program. Enter an adopted staffing commitment into that plan once, checking that it has not already been deducted.

Also name what the hire should improve: dependable supervision during transitions, protected planning time, or a manageable workload. A useful hire can support better care without bringing in new tuition.