How much should I be paying an aupair?

[Mumfortoddler]

Hello lovelies,

I'm looking into hiring an aupair, who would be responsible for nursery picks ups 2-3 nights per week plus around 3 nights of babysitting a week and maybe some babysitting over the weekends 1 in 3 weekends, and then finally to cover emergency illness. I'm totally new to this and would love to find out:

1. How much should I be giving them in weekly allowance?
2. What are the best/cheapest ways to recruit aupairs?
3. How should I select them?
4. What do you pay for, for the aupair, and what do you not pay for? (I.E. clothes/food etc...?) Has anyone else got some innovative ideas about how I can organise childcare? I'm not on a great income and the cheaper the better...

I am moving to Leicester, away from friends, family and just about everybody I know to take up a regional manager position for a charity and the job hangs tentatively in the balance on this factor!?! Eeeek.

Anna

You pay £75 a week plus ALL food for 25 hours of help in return. If you live out of town it is usually expected that they have access to a car or some other means of getting around (you pay insurance costs). They pay for their language lessons.

If you have a young baby you will need to pay extra to get someone with enough experience to know how to deal with an emergency.

You can recruit yourself using aupair world.net or great au pair.

How should you select them? Send 2/3 emails. Skype them, go with gut feel, check references. Eveyrthign else depends. I always go for graduates, friends of mine swear by younger APs.

hi we are in Australia and we pay $120 a week, i know others who have paid more or less depending. I use au pair world to find new au pairs. I used an English agency first as i thought culturally it would be great to have an English person. never again.. very expensive, first au pair had qualifications and we paid her extra. she left after 6 weeks as she didn't want to work with children! since the agency we used au pair world and have found German girls who fit in just great!

Normally an au pair would be expected to baby sit 1 or 2 evenings a week and have the weekends off. It is therefore very important that you exactly spell out which working hours you expect from the au pair and also which duties (eg does she need to do cleaning etc when your dc is at nursery).

The cheapest way to recruit an au pair is to go through one of the websites like Aupairworld. I have never had much luck (one au pair didn't turn up and other left after two days as she had found a job in central London near a friend). Alternatively, you can go through an agency, but this will be more expensive. It will take some time before you find the right au pair so do not leave it to the last minute.

The money you pay the au pair is pocket money. The family provides food/internet access/skype account or phone access/makes sure that the au pairs room is comfortable and properly heated. Most families contribute towards language courses (and enable the au pair to go to these courses), mobile phone costs, travel costs. Au pair pays for her own clothes.

I pay my au pair £95 per week, no babysitting during the evenings and she is off in the weekend.

To have an au pair is not necessarily the cheapest option. It involves an extra mouth to feed (check in advance for any allergies/special dietary requirements) and often a lot more heating. However, it gives a lot of stability if all goes well. I am still in touch with many of my old au pairs and many come to my dcs' birthdays. They really have become part of our family.

I have always had my aupairs babysit once at the weekend, usually on a Saturday night. It is part of the conditions of employment and that is absolutely the norm amongst all of my friends. They tend to use Fridays as their big night out.

I ask for 1-2 nights babysitting in the week although that is usually an hour to cover me going put before DH gets home. We don't provide a phone, although I usually start them off with a £10 sim when they arrive so that they have something and I have never ever paid for language lessons or travel.

We pay our current au-pair £90 a week but I always start at £80 for 25 hours and increase after a set time. I would go up to £100 a week and have done in the past but current one isn't that great tbh.

All our aupairs have stayed for 1-2 years so I am pretty confident that what we offer stacks up.