What a nanny or childminder really costs in France (2026)

The answer decides everything else about the pay.

• Assistante maternelle agréée — she is approved by the conseil départemental, receives your child at her home, and may look after several children from different families. She is paid per child and per hour, and each child has its own contract.
• Garde d'enfants à domicile — she comes to your home. One contract, one salary, the hourly minimum of the 12-level grid.
• Employé de maison / aide à domicile — cleaning, ironing, helping an older relative. Same grid, different level.

All three fall under the same convention collective (IDCC 3239), but under different socles: the assistante maternelle has her own (articles 90 to 121), the others share the socle salarié du particulier employeur.

For an assistante maternelle, two floors apply at the same time and you owe the higher one:

For a garde d'enfants à domicile or an employee at your home, the floor is the level of the job in annexe 6 — from 12,61 € at level I to 18,07 € at level XII. The level follows the job actually done, and it is written into the contract: a garde d'enfants, a household employee and an auxiliaire de vie are not on the same rung. A branch certification lifts the first levels by 4 % (I–IV) or 5 % (V–VI).

These figures moved on 1 June 2026 and move again at the next revalorisation: the convention's minimum wages roll on 1 June, which is also the day the paid-leave year restarts. It is the natural day to re-read a contract.

This is the part that surprises new employers: you do not pay for the hours of the month you happen to use. Regular care is mensualisée — averaged over 12 months, so the same amount is paid every month, holidays included (CCN art. 108.1).

A worked example, année incomplète: 4,20 € × 40 hours × 46 weeks ÷ 12 = 644 € gross a month for one child, paid every month of the year — including the weeks with no reception, which is exactly what mensualisation is for.

In an année incomplète, the weeks without reception go into the contract, or are given in writing at least two months ahead (art. 98.1.2).

Three allowances sit beside the pay and follow their own rules. They carry no social contributions, and they are excluded from the base of the end-of-contract indemnity — a detail that changes the sum owed when a contract ends.

• Indemnité d'entretien — covers what the assistante maternelle provides for your child: materials, water, electricity, games. At least 90 % of the minimum garanti for a 9-hour day (about 3,92 € for such a day, roughly 0,44 € an hour) and never less than 2,65 € a day, whatever the hours (CCN art. 114.1; CASF art. D.423-7).
• Indemnité de repas — either you supply the meals, or she does and is paid for them; the amount and the meals provided are written into the contract (art. 114.2).
• Indemnité kilométrique — when your child is transported in her car, agreed in the contract (art. 113), with the insurance checked at hiring (art. 91.3).

These are reimbursements, not wages. Treating them as salary — or forgetting them — is one of the commonest mistakes in a first contract.

The gross cost is not the net cost.

• CAF — complément de libre choix du mode de garde (CMG). For a child under six looked after by an assistante maternelle agréée or at home, part of the salary and the contributions are covered. It is calculated from the monthly Pajemploi declaration, which is why a late declaration delays the payment. The conditions and the amounts are on caf.fr.
• Crédit d'impôt for services à la personne — childcare at your home and household help open a tax credit on the sums you actually bear. The current rate and ceilings are on impots.gouv.fr.
• The contributions themselves are computed by URSSAF from your declaration, on pajemploi.urssaf.fr for childcare and cesu.urssaf.fr for a household employee — you never compute the net yourself.

We deliberately quote no figure for the aids here: they change more often than the convention does, and the official pages are the only version that is current on the day you read this.

Once the contract is signed, one act repeats for its whole life: the monthly declaration. It opens on the 25th of the month worked and is due by the 5th of the next one. You declare the hours actually worked and the gross pay; the service computes the net, the contributions and the payslip.

Most disputes in home employment are not disputes about the rule. They are two people holding different numbers for the same month — a day counted on one side and not the other, an absence remembered differently, an allowance forgotten. The convention does not settle that; a shared record does.

That is the point of keeping the month somewhere both parties can see it: one records the hours, the other confirms them, and a difference is flagged before the declaration rather than argued about after the payslip.