How much do you pay your au pair

[kitkat1967]

if you don't mind telling me? Bascially I am looking for an au pair (male) for start of Jan next year and have had loads of responses. The only childcare I need is 1 hr in the morning and 1 hour in the evening Mon-Fri. Weekend work & babysittig would be by exception only. I hope to top this up with either housework or gardening/diy. I aleady have a cleaner so was thinking of dropping this to once a fortnight rather then cancelling altogther.

As I am looking for a male au pair and my children want someone sporty I was thinking of providing a Gym membership in addition to pay. Am I correct in thinking it should be £70 (cash) per week?

thanks
K.

For her first year with us we gave AP £80 per week cash, bed and board, and two return off-peak train journeys to London each week (worth an additional £30).

For this she did 3 days a week looking after DD from 6 months old (with then-unemployed DH at home for backup so not unsupervised), around 24 hours per week. In terms of cleaning we just asked her to clear up after herself, keep DD's changing area and bag tidy, and take turns with us in stacking the dishwasher, cleaning the bathroom etc..

This was in the south east with someone who had first-aid and life-saving qualifications as well as lots of prior experience with small children.

Again South East 6 months ago I paid £75 for 25 hours per week with cleaning and ironing.

thanks both. This will be someone with no prior experience (but children are 10 & 7) for 10 hrs a week so I don't think I am too far wide of the mark.

thanks.

For £70 cash I would contract to have them do laundry/ironing and be available for babysitting too. Maybe even get the weekly Tesco shop in? Put this is an expected and not 'by exception only' because they will then be ultra pleased when they get 'let off', instead of pissed off when you invoke the 'exception basis'. It's all a matter of perception but it makes managing them much much easier.

I usually pay £75 for 25 hours. I tend to avoid having them 'clean' because (a) they never do it as well as a proper cleaner, and (b) I think it takes the 'helping out round the house' bit a little too far. But that's just a personal view.

Mine gets £70 per week, plus phone, Greater London bus pass, and Gym membership (complete with spa, tennis courts, pool, etc.) for 27 hours per week. This includes the one night a week of non-weekend bsitting. However, in my last month of pregnancy I'm too tired to go anywhere so she never has to do the bsitting.

I do think waving a nice gym mem bership goes a long way to attracting a sporty candidate.

Mine gets £70 a week, I paid for a railcard and a gym discount card (she pays for her sessions at a reduced rate). And £5 on her phone every week.

She does 25 hours and no cleaning. we are in the south east.

Thanks Strix,

I'm thinking I'll include a phone then - have to really as I need DD to be able to contact au pair if bus is late. We live in the sticks a bit so a bus pass is not relevant.

Do yours do English classes? My potential au pair asked me to investigate this and I found courses for au pairs or similar that are 2 mornings per week during term time - is that the sort of thing they want to go on?

Also as I'm going for a male au pair I think I will keep washing and ironing out of the equation as I'm a bit precious about that. I am thinking along the lines of gardening/diy to make up the hours a bit.

thanks
K

Suggest you track down down MNer StillSquiffy for male au pair advice.

Mine gets a mobile phone as part of the deal because I expect her to be on the other end of it if/when I text/call during her normal working hours. I give her the phone, buy her a payg chip and then give her £30 per month for top up. If she goes over that amount she has to pick up the difference.

I pay £75 a week (middlesex), but also pay for language lessons (we paid £400 up front, but she is contributing half). Afraid we don't do gym member ship - I want her to be sporty with the boys - it works for me!!!

The additional insurance for car is significant.

We are also generous with holidays and pay her for them. At half term for eg, we went away, paid her, and allowed her sister to come and stay too.

£95 per week in London with bed + board.

£70 cash
Bed and board (obviously)
Car +local petrol (but we are rural so essential so they don't get bored and lonely)
Gym membership
Mobile phone with UK calls and texts
Unlimited calls home
Stay until end of contract bonus (equivalent to £10 per week)

Fedup - when you say generous with holidays what do you mean? They are entitled to 28 days per year (pro-rata for shorter contracts).

hmm... thanks Dad - like your end of contract bonus. Do you find they eat a lot - does it add a lot to your shopping bill?

After some long email conversations we are going to Skype our favorite tonight - hopefully it will go well. The children are very excited.

I always have male APs and the ironing is a bit shite sometimes. But I would rather have them doing that than gardening/DIY (especially DIY). Hand on heart, I would not have trusted any of my fab male APs anywhere near a spanner.

With laundry I do make it simple - we split light and dark into two different laundry baskets and everything goes onto a gentle wash. Stuff like silk and (my own) underwear I do myself at the weekend. Everything else gets taken care of - washed, ironed and back in wardrobes (or back on kids beds in case of their duvet covers).

Another good one I find is to get them to go through cupbards every week with checklist and tick off what you're getting low on and then go buy it in a weekly shop. Means I never run out of things like dishwasher tablets / J-cloths any more. Also means I can have a proper plan for kids food. Little things that make life much easier.

Food-wise Oh God yes. They eat mountains compared to girls. But I find it much easier because instead of AP girls forever asking for certain types of yogurt/mushrooms/low-fat this or that, all I have to do is make sure freezer is stocked with Pizza and Burgers - in my experience they will happily eat on that and little else for months on end. Tlaking of appetites, I was a little when my AP ate a whole meat loaf on Tuesday...

Hi Dad,

They get more than that...

New AP started 14 Sep, due to stay until August. She has (minimum):

1 week Oct
1 day Nov
2 weeks Dec
1-2 week Easter
2-3 weeks July

and we will pay her 2 weeks pay when she leaves us.

Most of my APs (all girls) have eaten sensibly. One did not. She was a big girl. And as some of you may recall, it became a bit of an issue. It came to a head when I realised she'd eaten about 10 salmon steaks and I had nothing for supper...but that is another thread altogether!

Hi StillSquiffy,

So you would recommend a male au pair then? This will be our first venture in the world of au pairs but frankly I cannot keep turning down meetings if they are off site and I will not get back for pick up from childminder (same for early starts). We have, however, had years of nannies, nurseries or childminders and hopefully this will now be just for our last few years of childcare (wishful thinking maybe).
I'm considering a male au pair as my kids, DS 7 & DD 10, love the young male helpers at their holiday club as they are the ones that really play with the kids - sports, dens etc. Also we don't live in a big city so I think a 'sporty lad' will be easier to entertain.

I don't anticipate asking the au pair to any washing other than their own but they will need to do some cleaning!
Having someone living in will be hard but I've run out of other options at this point!! (DH does not/cannot help with any childcare so it is 100% down to me .)
K

I absolutely recommend males and will not return to females if I can help it. We have had one fabulous girl (from Sweden) but the reason she was fabulous was because she was quite 'blokey'. The males just seem to fit in easuly and seem to be generally 'happier' - no homesickness, no romances to moon over, no fretting if it's raining or snowing, lots of energy to race round garden with the kids. I also like that they seem to find it easier to get a social scene going. We nicked our latest one from the hotel we stayed at in the summer (beats taking the shampoo). He has a first degree in early years education and was running the children's club. fab. You can also always get graduates/older APs easily - not the case with females.

Yes, I noticed a lot of the Au Pairs we looked at are older and have degrees and teaching qualifications. Not sure about the one we spoke to last night - no particular reason but he seemd a bit nervy - maybe will investigate the ones who have had previous au pair roles.

thanks for the advice,
K