Going rate for German 'Abitur' Au Pair

[Molesey]

Hi,

I'm just looking for some opinions on what the going rate should be for a 19 yr German school leaver working in the London suburbs? Assuming a standard 25 hr week with minimal house work,

I'm thinking it should be less than someone who's 21/22 with a year au Pair experience under their belt.

I was going to start at £70 and then probably throw in a small phone top up each month and limited use of a car.

Does this sound reasonable or too low?

Thanks,

Yeah, that sound absolutely fine to me

Reasonable if you live in desirable part of town with good tube access and nice accommodation. If not you will find an AP easily but probably not one with a years' experience because they can pick and choose the best jobs.

This is exactly the set up we have, minus the car.

I think it's reasonable. But, you might have to be prepared to raise it a bit in negotiation. Good place for the initial offer / advertising though.

Assuming you are in Molsey, I think you'll need to give her an Oyster card too - either a bus pass (£68 a month - useful if travelling during the week e.g. to language courses) or some credit (we give £60 a month) on prepay (if she mainly needs it to go into town on weekends, although as far as the tax man is concerned you need her to have it for occasional work-related trips in the week).

Otherwise even if you are within walking distance of Kingston, she is going to find it hard to get around on £70 a week.

£70 is rock bottom really, we went up to £80 this year (New Malden) and feel that is plenty. £75?

I think that unless you are in Central London it is a bit low. She will meet other au pairs and find out what they earn and then in all likelihood she will not be very happy and might decide to move on. Au pair rates for outer London are likely to be around £75-£85 with some help with public transport costs.

(Feeling mean). We pay £65 per week plus £10 per month top up and live in London suburbs (zone 3). She also has use of the car during the day and (if we don't need it) in the evenings. We need someone to drive and the insurance for a 19 year old is v high so adds around £40 per week to the cost. We also buy all food (including her chocolate ration) and allow unlimited landline calls to Germany.
The hours are officially 25 per week but are often less and we can be flexible about her hours if she has visitors/plans because the DC are older. The only cleaning we ask her to do is to vacuum once a week.
Our au pair has met other au pairs locally and has commented on how lucky she feels not to have to babysit as often/work as late as the others.
She is our second post Arbitur German au pair and is a friend of our first one, so I think it must be OK.

Thanks for the advice. We plumped for £75 in the end which I think is a fair compromise and she seemed happy. Fingers crossed that she's good!