Au pair pay?

[sunnymum77]

So what do you pay an au pair who does around 30-40 hours a week?

£200-£250 possibly more if they are caring for a child most of that time as then you would want someone with some childcare experience.

Employers NI will apply at that salary level.

Is it mostly helping you around the home, general housework, or doing childcare? Is it more a nanny job, than an au-pair role?

That does suggest more than an AP role . What about fitting in college classes etc.

Au pair is for 25 hours a week + one or two evening baby-sitting. With more hours it`s a nanny position.

It's a nanny or mothers help position and you should pay minimum wage at least. If live in find out what you can expect to take off from that its quite confusing so best check info with HRMC or a pay roll company. Remember to have a contract and stage wage in gross.

Thats not an au pair, thats a nanny.So I guess you pay them nanny wages.

If the aupair is live-in, minimum wage does not apply. I pay my live-in aupair who works 35 hours a week £90 a week with food and board, but we live in London where rents are higher. Expect to pay more for an aupair if you live outside of a city. There is no fixed rule how many hours an aupair can work so long as you agree everything upfront. An aupair that works 30-40 hours a week would be considered an aupair plus.

My nanny does not a mixture of light housework and childcare to my school age children. You do not specify what her duties. Aupairs are generally unskilled. I would not give her sole charge of children below 2-3 years for long hours but will use one for older children or wrap around care when used with ft nursery.

My aupair, not nanny

My au pair (plus) does between 25 - 30 hours a week plus the odd babysit for £120 a week (plus gym membership, phone etc). No cleaning. We are in London Zone 3.

No minimum wage but there is such thing as a fair wage. Thing is there is such an influx of people here in the UK that will work for an unfair wage that the jobs are filled but at what cost? I've seen "au pairs" who are untrained and inexperienced expected to do full housekeeping duties with sole care of under fives. It's the children that lose out and its only a matter of time before there is a serious incident.

I wish the govt would get in and do something before something terrible happens the live in laws are so old fashioned.

I'd like to see a minimum amount that employers can take into account for accommodation and then the staff can be paid minimum wage.

And again I say there is no such thing as an "au pair" you employ some one to help in the house. I wish that all help in the home was regulated in some way.

The problem with aupair threads is that the OP asks for advice but you get people who dislike the idea of aupairs in principle (aka slave labour) or nannies (who see aupairs as unskilled competition) who do not distinguish between what aupairs get and what aupairs should get in their ideal world.

I don't think that is necessarily helpful for a newbie aupair employer. I am fine for people to spout their beliefs but at least make it is just that, their belief, as opposed to the reality.

We've just started with our first au pair and I don't think a 40 hour/week role could/should be considered an au pair role.
The point of the au pair scheme is for a young person to experience life and culture in another country and improve their language skill and shouldn't be an excuse for them to work 40 hours for very little pay.

I too think it needs more regulation so that people aren't exploited.

Incidentally OP 30 hours could be an au pair plus which in London is around £90 + travel card.
Here (in bucks) a 25/hour a week au pair earns £90-100/week.

It's a public forum where we all spout our beliefs that's a given. I'm pretty clear in my posts about how I feel about the unregulation of the au pairs. You've only got to search any job site where people use the word au pair and yet describe a totally different role.

I just don't want any children to become hurt by an au pair that took on too much. Thing is as soon as anything goes wrong the media will say nanny and it will then make it even harder for career nannies.

I don't even nanny however I do work in households where au pairs are not used fairly something I've discussed with clients.

As others have pointed out, an au pair is expected to work 25 hours may be with 1 or 2 evenings babysitting. An au pair plus may work 30 or even 35 hours but then without baby sitting in evenings.

We paid our brilliant au pair £90 per week for 25 hours, no baby sitting and no cleaning. She was happy because was able to follow English courses and get certificates. We were happy because she was excellent. We are still in touch.

Treat your au pair well, reward them well, they will compare what they get and what they have to do with other au pairs and a happy au pair is worth their weight in gold.

It's nothing to do with not liking au pairs, and everything to do with not liking people who use au pairs as nannies.

40 hours a week is by no stretch an au pair.

30-40 hours is.not an au pair.. it's.a.nanny...

OP - how old is the child or are the children the au pair needs to care for? Could you give her time off once the children are at school/nursery to reduce the hours to something more manageable and thus enabling her to follow courses?

Also, some people give an au pair lots of cleaning duties, but an au pair is not a cleaner (she may not do a very good job cleaning in your eyes or she may be very annoyed having to clean a lot, neither is a good outcome), so if you expect the au pair to do a lot of cleaning you may be better off having an au pair for far fewer hours and taking a cleaner to do the cleaning (we did this, and it worked really well).

Also, as other have pointed out, it is not advisable to have an au pair looking after very young children (BAPAA agencies will not place an au pair with a family if she is given sole care of a child under 2) but personally I would not leave an au pair for any prolonged length of time with a three year old either unless she is very experienced, has first aid and has a cool head in emergencies. Also depends where you live and whether there is help close by in case of an emergency.

Our au pair plus does 35 house a week, mostly ferrying around to after school activities. Tomorrow she will do 4 of those hours taking my son to see the Hobbit at the IMAX (her idea of heaven, my idea of hell). Similarly I'd rather chew my arm off than spend two hours at the riding stables, tennis club, etc.

We pay £100 a week for 35 hours and then £6.50 for every hour of overtime on top of that. She also has her own car and petrol and annexe with its own living room and kitchen. I can promise you that she doesn't feel exploited.

I do feel however that if you have babies or toddlers the sole childcare should be very limited. If a toddler needs looking after during the day then a nursery or childminder is the place to be, not because of the cost/exploitation thing but because I think its a big ask of someone whose had no training/first aid.

OP are you including babysitting in your 30-40 hours? With APs you normally separate their daytime hours and babysitting hours. The norm is 25 hours per week in the daytime plus two babysitting evenings (which could of course amount to another 8-10 hours but that's after the kids are in bed so the AP can relax).

We are in London and pay £90 for those hours plus all food etc and we include our AP in family trips if she wants to come and we obviously pay for her if she does come. She is v happy as are all her AP friends, MN has a very hostile attitude to au pair employers but it can be a great experience for the au pair and host family.

I pay £120 a week for 30-35 hours plus 2 nights babysitting. I seriously doubt my aupair feels exploited, she has been with us for over 2 years and my previous one stayed for 18 months.

I am genuinely shocked at some of the responses on this thread. £90 for 35 hours.. that has to be exploitation!

If you contact local au pair agencies they will be able to give you accurate indie nation on hours, duties and pay. I think they say that it's an au pair plus who'd work more than 25 hours per week. Salary is therefore more than an au pair.

But less than a nanny as they're unskilled. Saying that, my au pair has many wonderful skills and we love her.

I agree that £90 for 35 hours seems very little. However, the au pair should get nice and free accommodation, food and I think that most families (at least I hope) throw lots of other things in. We always took the au pair and her friend with us on family outings, short holidays, dinner, etc. We also asked her what extra stuff she liked, like snacks for the weekends when she always had a friend or several friends staying, toilettries, some clothes when we all went clothes shopping, little presents, stuff like that. Then again, our au pairs were (and are) definitely part of our family.

Exactly, the au pair package is so much more than cash. It's a home and food and family outings and a watchful eye as 18/19 year olds spread their wings for the first time.

40 hours for mothers help rather than a nanny.

According to the BAPAA website there's nothing wrong with 35 hours

"..Hours on duty: Au pairs can be on duty from 25 – 35 hours per week if they are from an EU country. This is limited to 25 hours per week and 2 evenings per week if the au pair is from Bulgaria or Romania. These hours can be spread out over 5 days per week. Longer hours are usually referred to as ‘au pair plus’. Many au pair agencies also offer ‘Mother’s help’ positions; this is not part of the traditional cultural exchange programme, as it usually involves longer hours and schedules can conflict with language classes.

Pocket Money: Pocket money must be minimum £70 per week for 25 hours, regardless of whether the minimum hours are worked. Many agencies recommend slightly higher pocket money. For 30 hours the minimum is £85..."

i rather suspect the the lifting of eu restrictions next year could see many au pairs happily settling for the lower end. theres nothing to stop people of means paying more.