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!.

Annoyingly, as I dont have an au pair, I'm going to have to go and give DS a bath.

I plan to speak to DH about this though. We pay our cleaner more a week. I could have a live in slave doing cleaning and childcare instead.....

Does the au pair have to be in the house? I've vetoed a nanny due to lack of privacy. However we do have a garden shed with it's own entrance. That could be the solution

When my friend employed a nanny 10+yrs ago it was c£30pa. Then there was NI, maternity etc... on top, and this was in St Albans.

Perhaps these people who want to flout the law/'bend'/take advantage of young foreign workers should:
a) look after their own children
b) move out of expensive areas/sell second homes

Perhaps then they can either pay a nanny and stop taking the piss of vulnerable foreign workers.

Cut your cloth people. You can't have it both ways - pay a piss poor wage and expect full time child care/domestic help.

Just because she's a single parent does not mean she's parenting alone or hard up. £135 for a full week,she has got to be kidding.

I can't fathom leaving 2 children with a virtual unknown. For a week, every month, when only prepared to pay that sort of money.

I lived in Rome once, I was on a career break and to get some cash I did private English lessons. These were WEALTHY families. They paid their au pairs nothing and were so rude to them. The number of times the au pairs did moonlight flits - in the one year I was there. Well, I think they all did.

That is what I would be worried about in the last example.

Add message | Report | Message poster Toughasoldboots Tue 28-May-13 17:25:40
Maybe they are bitching about us on nappyvalleynet.

Hahaha Toughasoldboots you are soooo right, but NVN makes me want to grate my eyeballs so badly that I daren't look!

I don't know how people can't see how exploitive this is.

The job advert for the first family is awful. The poor slave au pair is even required to iron when she babysits. Banishing her to her room when she is not working is particularly mean.

My 16 year old regularly earns £30 - £40 just for an evenings babysitting

Some people have no shame.

nappyvallynet is an actual thing?

Oh God - what is this nappy vally net?

I need to investigate forthwith. Except, I too, have to do bathtime and read a story. Oh, and plant a sunflower seed

Nobody mentioned planting seeds on their adverts suspicious!

Ha ha ha ha - some are okay - the Christian family appear to be paying a reasonable amount for a mother's help. But the one who wants the bilingual (French & English) au pair with 3+ years child care experience and qualifications. For £70 a week???? Ha ha ha. She doesn't even get her own entrance. Why on EARTH would someone with those skills work for £70/week?

"You must... appreciate privacy, both yours and the family's. When you are not working you must be out or in your room so that the family can have some time together."

What fucking revolting spoilt shits.

Never mind that such demands on how the au pair spends their 'spare' time brings the wage dramatically below legal.

I still wonder if some of the ads are from parents who don't originate from the UK. Fr example it might be standard in other countries for Au Pairs etc to carry out more duties/longer hours.

I sometimes wonder if wealthy people just have no clear idea of what money is. Like, they don't know how much things cost. They know that their mortgage is £4000 a month or that their car cost £50,000, but they don't understand what £20 is at all, if that makes any sense.

I was once asked to quote for a couple who appeared very well off. I know better than to assume that someone has plenty of cash just because they have a big house full of nice things and expensive cars on the drive (and posh accents and expensive tasteful clothing). But, they seriously thought that I would clean for £6.67 an hour. They had seen my web site, which talks about insurance, professional equipment, and quality service, and they somehow thought that this was doable on £6.67. I was polite when I pointed out to them that I have overhead in addition to wanting to make a living wage, but they truly seemed to not understand what I was talking about. They were nice people, just clueless.

I think you probably have a point Katy. Although tbh a lot of the hugely wealthy people I know are unbelievably tight. Prob partly why they're wealthy. They do watch every penny.

I'm not sure this lot look particularly rich though. They just look like they're taking the piss - maybe they can't afford to pay the going rate for nannies so have come up with their own solution not recognising that what they're engaging in is exploitation.

i just laughed so hard i scared the dog at the shed with its own entrance!

Is the bigest problem that many au-pairs are young and come into the country from abroad. This means they are quite naive and open to being exploited in this way.

Looking at some of the roads the gumtree ad people live in we are not talking hugely wealthy in these cases. Very well off compared to many, yes, but not millionaires. The original couple, for example, live on a road where when we were house hunting two years ago a four bed was about £550k which isn't the top end for this area by any stretch.

They are not rich, they are wannabes, the worst sort.

The meanest too.

I think it's much more likely that the people advertising have over-extended themselves with regards to mortgages etc which were based in two,full-time wages. Now the wife is working part-time, disposable income is more limited but they want to be able to keep the house, white company habit etc and therefore are looking for the cheapest childcare possible. Whilst also bumming to their pals that they have a "nanny".

Truly rich folk don't live in semis in Wandsworth

calypso put it better!

They aspire to have a nanny. But they can't afford one. Most can't afford a nursery, so they get an 'au pair' and brag about the 'nanny' at the school gates... oh, hold on, they don't do the school run.

They brag about the nanny at the 'fork supper'.

I have worked as both an au pair and nanny (about a million years ago). I was nosy just now and looked at some of the ads on Gumtree. There are some jobs that sound pretty OK mixed in with the explotation ones.
What I found far more concerning are the ads- including photos- of young foreign people wanting to work as au pairs. This is so unsafe- I hope no young people have been duped into sex slavery as a result..

Oh Tough you rotter, don't you know how much that's going to bore them to the grating eyeball stage. I especially enjoy the weekly emails they send like I would enjoy yanking out my tonsils.