Free tool
How Many Volunteers Your Sunday Roster Needs
Slot count times rotation depth, plus a bench for no shows and dropouts, is the number of names a covered Sunday actually requires.
Free tool, no sign up
Church Nursery Staffing Cost Calculator
Put a real annual number on paid childcare cover, including the payroll costs and the coordinator time that never reach the budget line.
Most small churches reach this question the same way. The nursery goes uncovered twice in a month, a young family stops coming, and someone at the board meeting asks what it would cost to just hire somebody. The answer is almost never the hourly rate alone. Once a church pays a nursery worker, the employer share of payroll taxes, workers compensation coverage and any state unemployment obligation ride along with it.
The second hidden number is the coordinator. Whether the room is staffed by paid workers or by volunteers, somebody spends hours each week building the rota, chasing confirmations and finding cover. Those hours are real even when nobody invoices for them, and if that person is a paid administrator they are already in your budget under a different heading. Enter both sides and see the total cost of keeping the room open.
Your result
Paid cover per Sunday
$164
Wages plus the employer costs that come with putting someone on the church payroll.
Paid cover per year
$8,536
The annual budget line for staffing the room every Sunday of the year.
Coordinator time per year
$4,992
What the scheduling work itself costs, paid or not.
Total annual cost of covering the room
$13,528
The full picture to take to the board, not just the wage line.
These are planning figures for a board conversation, not payroll advice, so confirm wage rules and coverage requirements with your state and your insurer before hiring.
What the coordinator line is really counting
Four hours a week sounds high until you time it. Building a rota for the coming Sundays, texting the people who have not confirmed, answering the volunteer who forgot they were on, finding cover for two drops, printing the Sunday sheet and updating the check in desk list. In a church of 150 that is a normal week, and it climbs in December and August when everyone travels.
The reason it belongs in this calculation is that hiring paid workers does not remove it. Somebody still schedules them, still covers a sick Sunday, and now also handles timesheets. The coordinator hours only fall when the scheduling itself gets easier: a published rota volunteers can see, swaps they can arrange between themselves, and reminders that go out without anyone pressing send.
When paid cover is the right call anyway
There are rooms where paying is simply the better answer. Infant care during both services is the usual one, because it needs consistency and a familiar face, and because volunteer supply is thinnest exactly where the requirements are highest. A church that keeps failing to fill the same room month after month is getting a clear message from its own rota.
The common middle path is a paid anchor with volunteers around them. One paid worker who is there every Sunday, plus a rotating volunteer as the second adult, satisfies the two adult rule, cuts the number of names you need on the roster, and gives parents a face they recognize. Run the calculator with one paid worker rather than two to see what that hybrid costs before you rule it out.
Questions about this calculator
Should nursery workers be paid as employees or contractors?
Churches regularly get this wrong. A worker whose schedule, place and manner of work the church controls generally looks like an employee to the IRS, not an independent contractor. Ask your accountant before setting anyone up on a form 1099, because misclassification is expensive to unwind.
What payroll burden percentage should I use?
The employer share of Social Security and Medicare is the largest fixed piece, and workers compensation and state unemployment sit on top of it, varying by state and by your insurer. The default here is a middle estimate. Ask your payroll provider or insurer for your actual rate.
Does this replace a volunteer rota?
Rarely. Even churches that pay for the nursery still schedule greeters, ushers, sound, slides and communion setup, and most still want a volunteer as the second adult in the room. The calculator is for deciding which rooms are worth paying for, not for retiring the rota.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The Six Week Church Rota Build Checklist
The exact sequence a small church coordinator can follow to publish six covered Sundays and stop arranging cover by text message on Saturday night.
That figure shows up in one room on one Sunday
Whatever the calculator just told you, the shortage lands somewhere specific: the infant room at nine o'clock, or the sound desk when your one operator is away. PewRoster keeps the count for you, flags a children's slot held by a volunteer whose screening has lapsed, and chases the names that never confirmed. Twenty minutes with your own roster is enough to see it working.