How much do au pairs earn these days?

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I know this has probably been done to death but I sort of searched and couldnt find anything.

We are moving to Cheshire from Italy and bringing an au pair with us. I need her to work over the lunchtime with 2 boys from 12-4pm and again in the evening at bathtime. She can have use of the car and all mornings and evenings free. She will be part of the family and eat with us and have her own room.

What do we pay her? Any ideas?

Hmmmmm,now I think about the hours,am inclined to agree pph. It is a lot of work isn't it?

But if you say that the room and board is worth well in excess of £100 a week, this would give my au pair a weekly wage of more like £200. For 35 hours a week, this equates to £5.70 per hour, well in excess of the minimum wage for a 19 year old.

The national guidelines for au pair's work conditions, tasks and pocket money are pretty clear. I don't see what is immoral about paying something less that 2-3x these, as you suggest.

The fact is, that girls are queueing up to come here as au pairs. I don't think my family is particularly attractive to au pairs, but for my latest offering, I've had over 100 applications! I say on my ad what the money is, so this is obviously acceptable to these girls.

I am paying as much as I can honestly afford, so the alternative would be for me not to have an au pair at all (I'm a SAHM, so I don't need an au pair), so who would benefit from that? Certainly not the au pair who can't find a placement.

I find that people who whinge about other people's au pairs simply don't have the room in their house to have one

Bloody hell pph, what do your crowd get up to that requires so much cleaning?! I always assumed that the chickens etc were kept outside of the house? Or are you ultra-trendy and don't belive in nappies at all so your cleaner is trailing around after your youngest?

Interesting points of view.

I was a nanny and hated it when I heard about au pairs being exploited etc but a lot of good points have been brought up here. It is a lot of money to have a house or pay a rent and bills on top of that plus food. ATEOTD the money she gets will be purely for her.

I dont want her to clean, just tidy up a bit, maybe. I just need her to watch the children while I am working. She can do what she likes for the rest of the day and can use the car if she wants to....or I will buy her a bus pass.

big house, ladymuck.

But even so, how is it getting so dirty?

And as for au pairshours, doesn't it really depend on how old the kids are etc. Cooking tea and being in the house with 9yos and over is a very different kettle of fish from looking after littlies. It's not as if you have to entretain them, thought I guess you might need to try and reinforce homework.

one thing i don't get is that on this thread people are saying that au-pairs should't be paid as much as nannies cos they aren't trained, qualified, experienced etc and are to look after older aged children but i clearly remember a thread before where i was really upset cos i was argueing that as a nanny for what i did i deserved a wage greater than that of an au-pair and people came down on me like a ton of bricks saying i was no better than an AP and i shouldn't earn anymore!!

I won't mention any names and don't want to rack over old groung again but just wanted to get this off my chest

Hi Nannyjo......(My RL name is Jo and I used to be a nanny and was called NannyJo!!)

Anyway, being an au pair is different to being a nanny, dont you think? I was a nanny for 17 years and was treated and paid very well in the last job I was in.

These threads can get heated sometimes as people do think that some can exploit foreigners to earn a lot less than is necessary. Looking after children is so much more important than cleaning or having a car serviced and yet can be so low paid it is embarrassing.

Dont take it to heart.....I bet you were as good a nanny as I was and I bet you never thought motherhood could be such hard work!! (as I did)

So far (touch wood) i'm finding motherhood a doddle but i'm only 11months into it so i shouldn't talk too soon!

My problem is now that i love doing things when i want and how i want that to go back to nnanying is gonna be mega tough now.

But i will stick to my guns and tell anyone who asks that us nannies work hard and do a very good important job that loads of people couldn't do if they tried!!

Thanks collision for your words of support.

NannyJo.....are you going to go back to work? I know of a good agency in London that helps with nannies with children go back to work.

Have you decided what to do yet?

I LOVED nannying and I love being a mum.....just different not being able to hand back at 6pm!

i want more babies!! DH not so keen. i will go back but not sure when yet. i'm in swindon so the london agency probably won't cober here. it's scarey though there are hardly any jobs left now cos of AP's.

Nannyjo, I've found that the title to a thread often makes a significant difference to the way the thread then pans out. And sometimes it is nice to be able to argue from different perspectives using our anonymous personas. I really wouldn't let any of it get to you!

Though I didn't think that nanny's were trained to look after older children.