To remind you that you cannot use your au pair for childcare all day every day

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

Its modern slavery unless you plan to pay them minimum wage for the hours.

I know several people doing this with children under 5 - using au pair for 10 hours a day all day. When they are only paid £80 a week.

I know people are struggling but its doesnt make it ok to abuse another person - please pay your au pairs appropriately if you are asking them to do full time.

Well said, OP. Over the years I have seen many families who have used au- pairs in a nanny role. It is really unfair . These are normally very young people who haven’t been necessarily developed the skills to push back against adults’ requests. Looking after young children is emotionally and physically exhausting. I would actively advise my kids to never become an au pair - I have seen so many young people taken advantage of.

Yes, and also an au pair is not a suitable all day carer for a baby or toddler!

So, so, so many people, including websites and advice sources that ought to know better, keep acting like an au pair is this absolutely brilliant loophole that allows you to get a nanny for buttons money. No.

If you need an all day sole charge carer for children, you need to pay them at least minimum wage. If you need this for preschool children, for more than a very very occasional ad hoc, you need a proper nanny or qualified childcarer, and they will rightly ask more than minimum wage.

It's not £80 per week though is it? Au Pairs are also provided with accommodation and all meals.

The contract I had with my Au Pair was the above in return for 25 hours' work. I also provided a car as I needed her to do school runs, but she was free to use the car for her personal use, all expenses paid. I don't agree with asking them to do more than these hours but do consider the full extent of their remuneration.

I thought au pairs were not permitted to care for children under the age of two in any capacity?
I thought that if you had older children, au pairs were permitted to care for a maximum of 30 hours per week and never over night.
I was on the understanding that any additional hours over 30 hours had to be paid as if they're a babysitter, so if you needed them to care for older children one extra evening, you are paying hourly like any babysitter.
Am I wrong? Are au pairs caring for children under the age of two?

If the people you’re talking about genuinely don’t pay their au pairs for extra work that’s truly wrong.

But in current circumstances and on mutual agreement I can imagine some are willing to work more for additional hourly pay. Not like they can go out and do much anyway.

I agree they should not be expected to do that but being as they too are in lockdown, they might be happy to act as a nanny rather than au pair for some extra cash.

Am I wrong? Are au pairs caring for children under the age of two?

They absolutely shouldn't be, but for sure some people are asking them to do nanny care for slave wages, yes.

I recall a woman on here who planned to offer an au pair ONLY room and board.

It's not £80 per week though is it? Au Pairs are also provided with accommodation and all meals.

It's still below minimum wage when you add an accommodation offset. It is recognised as an exception because it is meant to be fundamentally a learning experience for the au pair, one in which they also have the chance to earn some money doing light childcare and house duties.

It's not £80 per week though is it? Au Pairs are also provided with accommodation and all meals

So are live in nannies, who earn a decent salary. An au pair is supposed to be a part time job plus time to study and experience another country and improve language skills.

If they agree to work full time, they should be paid NMW for their age, although it is legal to deduct a reasonably token amount for accomodation (about £30 pw IIRC).

When I was aupair I helped 2 others who had it like this. If I was aware now, I would quite easily report the families to the police. It is no different to the people who bring workers here on farms to work for tenner a week imho
That time it was 55 quid a week.

Well, except the beatings. I meant in princip

Does sound like these young people are being exploited

Completely agree, OP. Pay for a nanny and pay them properly.

The trouble is that lots of au pairs are conscientious, responsible young people who want to be helpful and so they have trouble saying no. They are also living with a strange family in a different country and so are in a vulnerable situation.

Parents need to treat them as they would like their own young adult children to be treated. Just because you can exploit someone doesn't mean that you should .

I agree.

Thankfully I don't know anyone doing this. I do know some people who have asked if the au pair will do some additional childcare due to lockdown, and are paying them appropriately.

YANBU.
Au pairs can be a brilliant mutually beneficial solution for eg someone who needs wrap around care for a six year old, but they’re so easily exploited by unscrupulous and/or desperate parents who are unwilling/unable to bear the huge costs of employing someone legally to look after their infants for 50 hours a week.

It’s rarely talked about when we discuss modern slavery - people normally talk about childcare related MS in terms of wealthy Middle Eastern families bringing over nannies from Asia. But naice British MN types can definitely veer towards extremely exploitative behaviour and justify it to themselves because they feel they have no affordable legal choice.

Absolutely OP. We have always had Nannies, which has cost us a lot. That is meant we didn’t have much money spare when they were little. The number of friends who got au pairs instead and then expected them to be a Nanny is outrageous. They also would complain when the au pair wanted to be with the family at a weekend.

Apparently brexit has made getting an au pair very hard. To be honest I think it’s a good thing. It was an unregulated scheme which was abused by many families.

There have always been posts on here about someone needing full time childcare and endless posters suggesting an au pair, completely inappropriately. I suspect there are a lot of underpaid, over used, exploited au pairs and I'm glad that Brexit will be removing most of the opportunity for that since au pairs are most often EU citizens.

Yes yes to previous posters.

The amount that can be taken into account for provision of accommodation is very low where minimum wage is concerned. It's a factor in why live in staff are not common, it's not much of a saving to provide accomodation.

They shouldn’t have continuous sole care of children under two. They can go and play with them for a bit while a parent is in the house.

They usually do about 25 hrs a week, or 35 for au pair plus (ie paid more). They get their “pocket money” - about £100 per week - plus accommodation, food, access to English lessons etc We always used to pay for travel too and a UK phone.

It’s not a bad deal really! Although I’m guessing their cultural experience is going to be a bit rubbish in lockdown. You can’t put them in sole charge of kids all day every day though, no. They’re not a substitute parent.

(Ours were for wraparound care for primary school kids as a pp has mentioned)

Andcallofchridtmas:
Allowing even £50 a week to reflect doom and board (I dont believe HMRC's even allows that much) that would be £150 a week for 35 hours work. Would you work for £4.28 per hour? And disallowing a notional amount for the accomodation and food its even less.

I don't agree it's good that Brexot made it hard (actually impossible, since there is no provision). It was such an invaluable experience. So it's really a shame. Great way to learn actual functional English.
It should be much more watched and regulated though!

They usually do about 25 hrs a week, or 35 for au pair plus (ie paid more). They get their “pocket money” - about £100 per week - plus accommodation, food, access to English lessons etc We always used to pay for travel too and a UK phone.

Many families don't pay for the other bits. Most people I know paid their own phone, travel (unless car was part of the deal) and many paid their English lessons. We were very envious of the lucky ones who got lessons paid😁

Would you work for £4.28 per hour?

OP, you're appealing to people who also think it's perfectly ok to pay a qualified and registered adult £5 or less per hour to look after their children, and who then often feel that they're being 'fleeced' by their childminder because they have to pay 'so much'. When I worked in this field I felt a distinct lack of respect and I'm sure it was because, despite many qualifications and years of experience, I wasn't seen as a professional due to being paid so little. A vicious circle.

Absolutely right OP the term Au Pair is quite often used to describe what a qualified Nanny should do on the cheap. They affect the wages of all childcare workers and from stories of what i hear from Nanny friend downright dangerous at times. Often with very poor langauage skills in English and with non UK working practices often causing them them to get the children in their care into dangerous situations.

Personally i would change the law that everyone should be entitled to minimum wage with no car deduction/accommodation in lieu of payment. And actually enforce they have contracted hours and if they are expected to be on call they are paid an additional on call rate like in any other industry.

The people who employ them are often exploiting the most venerable and often jeopardising the safety of their own children. It is the middle class version of slavery and drives down the wages of decent qualified childcare providers.