On Gloria Richards’ first day of work, she was dropped off at an airport, introduced to children she’d never met and flown on a private jet to a rented-out resort in Barbados.
The 34-year-old is primarily an actress, but on the side, she’s a travel nanny for billionaires in New York. Often, she works around the clock while abroad, meaning the side gig sometimes supersedes her acting career.
But she’s compensated more than other caretakers: A 12- to 15-hour per day can net her up to $2,000, she says, which translates to between $133 and $167 per hour.
Plenty of people do gig work to pick up extra cash. A lucky few perform those jobs for some of the country’s richest individuals, making significantly more money by virtue of their employers — often doing jobs as simple as running errands or completing random tasks at their bosses’ whims.
It may seem like anyone could watch wealthy people’s dogs, children or houses while enjoying perks like free celebrity-branded products, cars, international travel and lavish work backdrops. But working with billionaires requires “extraordinary personalities,” says Jackie Mann, the director of operations at New York-based household staffing firm Madison Agency.
“The competency one has to care for a child isn’t uncommon,” Mann says. “The qualities it takes to work for the ultra-wealthy is patience and a nuanced perception of anticipating a person’s needs.”
It also involves access and, often, luck. CNBC Make It spoke with multiple individuals who have elevated their gig jobs by working for the ultra-wealthy. Here’s what they said about their lucrative side hustles:
Nannying ultra-wealthy kids
Nanny-matching site Care.com advises New York families to pay full-time nannies $21.25 per hour, the company’s website says. The city’s “high-end” nannies average $30.45 per hour, according to ZipRecruiter data.
Richards’ rate far outstrips those figures. Nannying is responsible for 80% to 90% of her income, she says: “I could nanny for, like, two…
Read the full article here