Au pair salary

Nobody is stating that all au pairs hate it but did none of yours end up doing side lines to earn extra cash? As £80 a week in 2016 is not much at all it's £11.40 a day.
That's why MW was introduced as they don't do 1 hours worth of work a day.

I loved having au pairs growing up on the most part - one I had for 4 years came to my wedding and we are friends (she's 9 years older then me)
But as an adult and a mum I recognise my parents saved a lot of money even though my parents paid more then most.

MW was introduced for au pairs to stop people being exploited.

Paying someone £80 a week in 2016 is exactly why the rules have changed. Yes it’s exploitative.

OP is not acting irritated at all. She’s completely calmly discussing a topic she has an opinion on.

'i didn’t stop to think of the ethics or fair wage, tax and pension contributions.'

I worked part time alongside my education from the age of 17, and I think it is appalling I didn't get pension contributions for it.

She’s massively irritated and not particularly rational — she was ‘grateful’ for the chance to work in badly-paid overseas jobs in her teens, so thinks au pairs shouldn’t get minimum wage.

I think you need to look at your own priorities if you think your kids are fine being looked after by an ‘unqualified teenager’.

I get it. Childcare is eye wateringly expensive. But if you’re complaining about paying minimum wage to someone who is effectively on call for you 24/7, then I think you need a reality check. I take it you aren’t paying for additional childcare?

maybe compare it with a childminder/nursery who charge you even if you’re on holiday. Childminders also charge you when they are on holiday! I had a childminder whose contract included paying her when she was sick. She was great with kids though and had a waiting list.

if you think it’s too much, remember no one is forcing you to have an au pair. Just use breakfast/ after school clubs/ babysitters instead.

but the reason you don’t is because it’s a hassle, unreliable, and involves a lot of organisation. And probably costs more than what it costs you to house one extra person, and pay them minimum wage.

I don’t employ an au pair (but do employ a nanny). I can see why the minimum rate on top of all the living expenses seems odd, but I think only when you compare it to the traditional au pair role – it was traditionally supposed to be a cultural opportunity for the au pair, the pay reflected their age, inexperience and that they are not supposed to work with children under school age or have sole charge of the children.

That traditional role has been exploited for a very long time, so I think it’s a good thing that they are putting proper protections in place.

When it was "more like a cultural exchange" it was because that's how the au pair was supposed to be treated - like a "big sister" in the family, with a workload no greater than if you had your own 20yo offspring living at home with a general agreement to be helpful to the family. The light workload is why the pay was just "pocket money". In reality they are treated more like an employee rather than a big sister so they should get employee wages.

If your au pair and your kids have a strong enough connection that they’re still in touch 10 years later, then she was with her more than just at pick up/ drop offs and a couple of nights babysitting.

my friend paid £80 a week to her au pair in 2016 and I thought it was exploitative then. Especially because she could have doubled what she was paying her and not even noticed.

Yes this op. With bells on.

From the au pairs point of view they could be 24/7 childcare on tap. Minimum wage but how many hours are they working? More than most on minimum wage I expect. For people employing an aupair it’s cheap childcare generally with someone with no qualifications. I know I would rather pay more for qualifications and experience.

Nothing in her language indicates irritation, whatsoever. She’s calmly discussing it. Perhaps you can point out where any of her language shows ‘massive irritation’?

And it’s not irrational – that’s her experience. You can obviously agree or disagree that it should have been someone’s experience, but it doesn’t change that it was.

@aupairinuk,
Chat gpt gives you figures for take home pay re 18 to 20 yr olds depending in jours worked. You'll be surprised

I don’t understand your maths either. How many hours a week does she work? Would she have time for a proper job on top? I suppose you’re paying for convenience and she needs a decent pay check to make up for the inability to have another job as if it’s 20 hours for you at random on call times that’s hard to work around.

also confused by you including imaginary rent in what you’re paying. Presumably she’s in a spare bedroom so unless you were intending to get a lodger, that’s not really a cost to you.

£200/week for everything you need besides whatever the family chooses to feed you and rent seems like not an awful lot of money. I’m glad we have moved away from exploiting young teens. So many terrible stories (and yes, lots of positive experiences too of course, but generally speaking not great).

Au pairs were sometimes badly exploited under the old dispensation.

so her take home is £800.00 which is less than minimum wage... unless you are using the accommodation offset? which means you are allowed to take up to a certain amount our of the wage to cover accommodation?

It isn't £900 rent though. Because if you advertised it's highly unlikely that you'd find anyone that wanted to live in a family home and pay that much. That's without factoring in on top that they're living with their boss so can't ever truly relax, can't bring a partner home, can't have friends round etc.

Socialising is more expensive when you don't have the option of hanging out with your mates at home.

Also, it would cost you far more than minimum wage to find someone prepared to do drop offs and pick ups because you can't do another job around it really. Before/ after school nannies are like gold dust and command a premium.

So overall you're still getting a good deal having an au pair.

My friends never felt shame either so I'm unsurprised that you've just admitted to paying someone 80 a week 😂

A lot of people are paid a salary and also have meals at work. This isn't deducted from their salary.

A lot also get their commute covered.

Because it's a 24 hour role no?
Plus the awkwardness of living with someone else and not having your own space

I was an au pair in 1990 in Brussels. I obviously had my room and all food but also got paid 1500 francs iirc. You sound quite annoyed @aupairinuk that au pairs are also expecting money as well as food and lodgings.

No home security as employers like you don't tend to treat their au pairs well. Some seem to just think they are cheap childcare and while many will get lucky, you deserve crap if you pay crap. Your poor kids don't though..

I know what you mean OP. We had an au pair last year and paid her fairly but it wasn’t a great experience. She had zero flexibility and I had to agree every hour she was working about a month in advance. I think the difficulty for us was that she was now being paid a proper salary whilst also expecting the ‘older daughter’ vibe in terms of us paying for everything (her tickets on days out, her snacks and coffees when she took the kids out, her phone contract etc). She complained constantly that we didn’t give her private health insurance! It was incredibly expensive. Now back to an after school babysitter with an hourly rate.

We had au pairs as a child who were paid pocket money as per the old agreement. My parents were incredibly fair in terms of treating them as one of the family and a number of them are still close family friends.

I employed ‘proper’ salaried nannies when the kids were younger and I preferred that as you knew where you were. Au pairs now is the worst of both worlds

You can deduct a small amount from the wages for bed and board but it’s very limited. HMRC sets the rate you can legally do this for. It didn’t touch my old au pairs poke bowl habit 🤣

Similar to our experience. Not everyone exploits their APs. And yes it was convenient and cheaper than alternatives… but we had 2 kids in ft nursery plus AP. They genuinely were free during the day. And lived in central London. A shitty flat near me… shared is about £1000 per month plus bills. We gave them a double room. A bathroom. And fairly minimal duties. Biggest risk was boredom.