Fair pay can mean very different things depending on who’s writing the rules.

So when an aunt noticed her niece being shut out of higher-paying chores at home, she decided to even the scales by offering her a job of her own.

What seemed like a win for one teen quickly became a point of conflict for everyone else.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for hiring my niece as a babysitter?

My brother has a daughter (F15, Nora).

His wife also has a daughter (F16, Katie), and they have a son together (M1, Boyd).

Babysitting has always worked a certain way.

They have a system in their home where they pay the kids for the chores they do.

Nora was talking to me, and she complained that Katie gets paid more because she helps babysit Boyd.

She said she asked her stepmom to let her help as well to earn some more money, but she refused.

The aunt soon tries to get the bottom of this.

I talked to my SIL and asked her if there is any reason she won’t let Nora babysit.

She said Katie is older and she thinks Katie is more responsible and better with babies, and she doesn’t trust Nora with a baby.

I told her it’s okay if she doesn’t want to let Nora babysit, but then she needs to make the payments a bit more fair.

She finds the current pay system really unfair.

Right now Katie gets around twice as much as Nora (Nora gets about $15 and Katie gets about $30 a week).

She said babysitting is harder, so Katie should be paid more for doing it.

So she decided to step in herself to make things more fair for Nora.

I was getting angry, so I told her fine, then I’d like to offer Nora a job.

She won’t do any chores for you anymore. I told Nora she is babysitting for me from now on.

She thinks this will work out just fine.

I have a 7-year-old son and a 13-year-old son.

My 13-year-old is old enough to watch his brother when my husband and I are at work or on a date night, since both kids are very mature and well behaved, but they were both happy to spend time with their cousin.

And she was generous with her payment offer too.

I offered to pay her $40 a week in exchange for spending time with her cousins.

Last week was her first week, and all the kids are very happy with this situation.

Her sister-in-law had a lot to say, though.

My SIL, however, is not happy.

She called and asked me if I actually paid Nora $40 a week to just watch TV and play video games with her cousins.

I told her that I did.

She said I’m being an AH.

She’s pretty much demanding things go back to how they were.

Nora was being paid according to what she was doing, and now I’ve created an unfair situation in which Nora does nothing and gets paid more than her sister.

She asked me to stop this, but I don’t want to stop.

AITA?

Nora finally got a fair paycheck.

What did Reddit think?

This seems to be all about control for the SIL.

Nora will definitely appreciate someone taking her side for once.

Babysitting is still work even when there isn’t an active emergency.

Playing favorites just isn’t fair.

If the rules aren’t working for everyone, sometimes you have to make adjustments.

Fairness has a way of finding a workaround.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.