Surrey Au pair pay and rations - am I being reasonable ?

[GezFox]

Hi
Looking for our second au pair to start September .

thinking of offering same as current au pair:

Based in Surrey
£100 per week pocket money - this is for c 25 hours per week , 2 nights weekday babysits ( a few hours is really all we use one night per week to go running ) and 2 Saturdays per month ( again we rarely use but nice to have if needed )
Mobile phone
Use of car during week ( weekends by arrangement)
Contribution to English classes
All food
Bedroom with TV / Netflix et and private bathroom
Paid holiday

Duties include drop off / pick up / preparing snacks / lights meals for kids and kids laundry .

We employ a cleaner

Do you think this is reasonable ?

I am hearing that people paying up to £130 for similar ?

I know there is a shortage of girls coming to England this year because of Brexit and terrorism I am told and that Ireland and Scotland are now preferred locations so maybe this is driving up the cost ?

Any insights most appreciated!

TIA

Seems reasonable to me. We are in london and pay £100 for 25 hours plus two babysittings (not always used). No gym membership or language course. Nice en suite room and all meals etc. If we ever need extra hours (e.g. IF a child is ill) then we pay £8.50 an hour.

We found there were fewer applicants this year but London remains popular and it was not hard to find someone.

Oh and we pay 5 weeks paid half holiday.

When can I start

Think the two Saturday night babysits is too much.

That's a lot of babysitting.
We are in Home Counties (not London) and pay £100pw plus decent bonus every six months. One night a week babysitting. Six weeks paid holiday.

Thanks everyone - really helpful

I think I am broadly in the right ball park. Could rethink the Saturday nights - tbh only really use more than one a month in the months of December and June when its busy with school stuff.

Can anyone recommend an agency for Surrey ? have had limited profiles come through from the one I am using .

I think that sounds fine. It's a bit more, all in, than we offer but we have fewer hours and not that much babysitting. I have never heard of someone paying £130 a week but I don't know too many people with au pairs at this point. I also haven't looked at that many ads on AP world.

In addition to fewer applicants, now that we need older au pairs, I am finding that many of the girls rather than try to negotiate a rate ask about whether we mind they take on another job. So this is a different sort of issue...

I am in Hampshire and obviously a cheapskate at £90 and no benefits. It's an easy au pair job - on cusp of not needing one with an 8 and 13 year old, but essential for when my husband goes away (up to 2 months at a time) as I work shifts. More work then including cooking for girls.

Our kids are in your age bracket Adelie. I pay £110 but it includes some dog walking. Honestly - there isn't much of a job any more apart from ensuring the house doesn't burn down and the kids eat. AP also helps with a bit of music practice. Oldest DD is never home before 6, youngest 4pm and then gets scooted to an activity. I might insist on a bit more help with their laundry next year.

I wonder if the £130 jobs are the ones where the AP is doing a proper 25-25 hour stint with young (non school age) children.

We are paying our current au pair (leaving in 2 weeks) £90 per week. Kids are 7 and 3 but the 3 year old is at fulltime nursery. He also gets £30 per month towards gym membership and every other Friday off plus 4 weeks paid holidays. Effectively his hours vary between 20 and 25. We are in London. I think he managed ok on this, he goes out a lot, even on short weekend trips. He mostly uses buses in London. He never asked for more and I always felt it was fair.
For the au pair due to start in September we offered £100 but it will be for slightly more hours.
I know of one family who paid I think £120 but this was for 3 kids plus cleaning the house.
Frankly I think around £430 per month pure spending money for an 18 year old is pretty good, considering most of their costs are covered!

How do you find having a boy AP ? I am up for it ( as are the kids) but husband flat refuses !

GezFox, it has been great with him. He is our first au pair so I have no comparison with a girl au pair. He has been brilliant for my 7 year old boy, did lots of outdoorsy sporty stuff with him. For my daughter I would have preferred a girl au pair though, she just connects with girls more easily.
It took a while to get him to do the chores. He wasn't keen at first to do the kids laundry for example. Also I keep wondering if a girl would be more self-aware with tidying up after herself, I still have to remind him to clean the stove after making himself a fry-up! But maybe I am generalising here..
he is quite independent and I never had to worry about him when he went out.
I would take a boy again but next au pair will be a girl.

Oh and he came with a big appetite and started off by only eating proteins, so that was a lot of chicken breast and eggs going.. over time he became more balanced and added more rice and pasta thankfully.,

The only thing that is pushing it is the Saturdays but otherwise sounds great

Thanks all - and yes I can imagine the food bill a lot higher with a boy!

We just had confirmation that a Spanish girl will be joining us this weekend so one more thing to cross off the list - phew!