One California mom is calling out teenagers for their “outrageous” babysitting rates.
“So the other day, my daughter comes to me and says, ‘I got my first babysitting job. I think I’m going to charge them $20,” Alissa Haroush began a TikTok video.
Haroush’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Twenty dollars an hour for a 10th-grader with no experience!?
“Let’s break this down for a second,” Haroush said in the clip. “You’re not even legal to work. You don’t have a college degree — you don’t even have a high school degree.”
Not only that, Haroush noted that her daughter doesn’t have a driver’s license or CPR certification.
“This is ridiculous!” Haroush exclaimed. “It’s unskilled labor.”
Not everyone agreed.
“We are showing them to value themselves and not be used by other adults,” one person wrote in the comments.
When a Tiktoker questioned what Haroush meant by “unskilled labor,” she replied, “A 15 year old is skilled labor?”
Haroush, a jeweler and mother of three in Los Angeles, says that teenage sitters lack the “same value” as experienced adults.
“We’re corrupting our kids. They’ve becoming more and more entitled,” Haroush tells TODAY.com. “Yes, I think my children deserve the best in life. But I also think they have to earn it.”
According to Haroush, new babysitters should charge minimum wage, and caring for one child should cost the same as caring for four.
A study conducted by Urbansitter found that average babysitting rates in the United States rose in 2024 by 4.5%, outpacing inflation at 3.4%.
The average hourly rate for a babysitter nationally is $23.61 for one child and $26.57 for two children.
Women’s empowerment speaker Andrea Owen went viral in 2016, when she argued that teenage babysitters should feel empowered to name their price.
“My experience in this is usually the girls say, ‘Whatever you want to pay me is fine.’ NO. THIS IS NOT OKAY,” Owen wrote on Facebook. “This starts at home. Parents, teach your children, ESPECIALLY your daughters, to name her price and stand confidently in it. ‘I would love to babysit your children and I charge X per hour.’ Practice it with her.