To think that this advert for an live in au pair is grossly underpaid?

[salsmum]

I was just browsing on a job site and this advert came to my attention, AIBU to think that this is asking an awful lot of a potential au pair for £80 a week? and I thought carers were underpaid!.

have I missed something? I can't see a link to the ad.

They were all sadly deleted :-(.

It's a real shame they were deleted as there is a very serious point to this thread. People thinking it is acceptable (on some cases even worthy) to offer a pittance to someone to care for their children.

I'm not really sure why these people should be protected.

I am surprised there are not more 'Matty Eappen' type cases (famous Boston case involving a British aupair) where the children are harmed. My mil was asked and went (because she felt bad for the child) to America to look after DH's cousin's child because he (12 months old) was taken to hospital with a suspicious hairline skull fracture and they fired the nanny. They called her a nanny but I am pretty sure it was a similar type of situation... both are working professionals with postgrad degrees, think at least one of them was earning six figures at the time. My MIL dud not think very highly of them after the experience ... she said they would just come home at around 8 and pop their head around the door to say " Hi Chinnu" to their son whom they expected to be in bed, dinner made (by MIL naturally) and then they would continue working at home until 11pm. I've met both of them and whilst I genuinely liked them and didn't think they would be intentionally abusive, I think they possibly thought certain stuff beneath them and anyone who had to engage in it was a bit unworthy..

It always amazes me that the type of people who sprout the sort of jargon along the lines of 'you pay peanuts, you get monkeys' to justify executive salaries expect others to look after their child for merely the pure joy of it.

This bit made me chuckle;You should be a good adult role model, derive satisfaction from performing your role well and seeing the boys succeed and enjoy themselves....erm isn't that what PARENTS should do????

I cant see the advert, but I have been looking for an Au Pair recently as my husband and I work shifts and we currently pay for a child minder 8-6pm x5 days a week which is unnecessary as sometimes we are off and choose to spend time with our girl.
I have done quite a bit of research on this and approx £70 week plus benefits (eg bus pass, phone, internet, tv, etc) in a rural area is quite the norm in exchange for child care and the odd light bit of housework/babysitting. They get food and board on top of this as well as trips and meals out.

I think people forget how little people in childcare get anyway.. i have spent money at nursery's and childminders and its approx £40 a day for a 9-10 hour day...thats approx £4 an hour.

gob Sorry for absence I'm just reading through the replies now...thank you ladies Not 'ladies' I'm sat here LOL which I really needed today as I'm going to see a resident of mine poorly in Hospital so was feeling a little low.

But the childminder potentially has 3 all day and another 3 for 4 hours more if at capacity with none if theor own children. That's £120 for the 3 FT plus another £45ish for the before/after school.

Nursery staff get at least minimum wage per hour.

You can't compare apples and oranges. The closest comparison is a live in nanny which will start at around £300 gross for usually a max of 60 hours and that's still £5/hour.

Yes, a decent arrangement will give £70-100 plus room an board and inclusion in family activities for 5 hours a day light housework and childcare which may or may not be of a brilliant standard. But the point is these stent decent arrangements within the spirit of an au pair agreement, because the spirit if it is all that's left in the UK unfortunately. The protections au pairs used to have we're systematically stripped away.

Sorry - these weren't decent arrangements

trixi one of the ads was asking for 45 hours a week at £120. Not the same at all. They live in an area where a ten hour day at nursery can be £75 (what we pay). The care asked for in the majority of the ads posted yesterday was full time for under 3s.

At least in of the ads asked that the au pair be out or in their room when the parents were home, and to ensure when the children were watching TV that they were doing other housework. It was disgraceful

It's also worth mentioning (don't think anyone has said this already) that domestic servants - including au pairs - are exempt from health & safety regs, so there is very little protection out there for them. It makes me so sad that we have such a vulnerable working group within our society .

I read some of the adverts before the links were pulled and they were shocking.

I am really surprised that, given how someone emailed one of the family's and directed them to this thread, nobody has shown up to defend themselves.

Because it's unethical and exploitative. That's why not.

Disgusting! People can be so sickening.

I just asked my father about the au pairs they had a few years for my younger sister.

They live outside of London
3 aupairs over 5 years ( all stayed longer than a year)
For sister when she was age between 7-12, not that many years ago

They worked 3-6 , mon-fri ( so 15 hrs a week). With maybe one evening a month.
£95 a week
Own car given, with petrol paid
Large Room with ensuite

What gets me about this sort of person is that they expect the world for their paltry £80 a week. They go on like their children are their lives, the most important thing in the world, yet they wont (even if they can afford it) pay for decent care for their little darlings!

If there was a fire, or a bad accident would an untrained 18 year old know what to do? No. But the family would go completely crazy at her if their child got injured and she could never work in childcare again no matter how much training she subsequently had.

Why do these people think that by paying £2 an hour they are entitled to demand a cross between Mary Poppins, Florence Nightingale, and Prof. Stephen Hawking, who will happily live in a cardboard box in the garage?

*It's a real shame they were deleted as there is a very serious point to this thread. People thinking it is acceptable (on some cases even worthy) to offer a pittance to someone to care for their children.

I'm not really sure why these people should be protected.*

I agree totally. I certainly would not condone a brandishing pitchforks attitude but it does appear from the way this has handled that protecting exploitative parents is put at a higher priority than protecting exploited girls. I'm quite confused and cross about it actually.

I wonder if the family who were directed to this thread have threatened legal action......

A lot of live-in domestic staff with childcare responsibilities are treated appallingly.

This whole situation from what i've read skimming the thread sounds disgusting.

I'm constantly amazed at the going rate for jobs like this. Your entrusting the most valuable things in your life to someone who's basically working as a slave.

Don't have kids if you're not prepared to look after them yourself, or pay someone a decent wage for doing it for you. It's outrageous.

Threatened legal action for what? All of this is fair comment and I'd be very happy to go to court and have this ventilated in a public forum. They wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I feel sorry for the au pairs but its the children I feel most sorry for. I'm not sure how you could actually go to work and not be worrying every second about the 20 year old with a basic grasp of English whom you had left in sole charge of your 1.5 year old for 9 hours

God forbid anything happened but, if it did, I would expect social,services to be very interested. And the police.