Outside London au pair

[Bythebeach]

Just want to sense check au pair responsibilities and pocket money rates outside London/SE for recruiting our next au pair as our current lovely one will leave in June.

We have 3 kids but eldest is a teen so she looks after only the younger two. Responsible for school runs and before and after school care 3.5days a week plus dog walk 4 days a week plus babysitting once a week either 3 hours in the evening or at the weekend. 22 hours roughly. Pocket money £90 per week plus paid flights home for Xmas plus a £300 contribution to language school for our current au pair. Of course board and all meals. Does that sound reasonable?

Oh and no cleaning beyond daily loading/unloading dishwasher as we have a cleaner twice a week.

How many hours is she working? Does minimum wage not apply to au pairs?

Ummm no BlackPrism....it’s extremely well-recognised as a mutually beneficial cultural exchange. See link for government explanation of status! Was hoping for replies from those who actually have au pairs.
www.gov.uk/au-pairs-employment-law/au-pairs

Alright, I was just asking. Just happened upon here and it seemed a bit low is all

That would be a little light round here but the language school contribution might swing it. The ones round here also jump for nice living accommodation (some have an annex or en suite which understandably is a plus), and any perks like being added to family memberships for sports clubs / attractions or similar. Oh! And UK phone with a contribution to credit

Paying for flights and language course is generous in my opinion and tbh it might be safer to pay a more attractive weekly wage - if you dont get on you have spent a lot of outlay for little return.
I paid a bit less than £90 p/w for similar hours plus a gym membership and mobile phone.

Whereabouts are you PurplePie? Would it be more like £100 around you?

She has quite a big 16x13 bedroom and own shower room on top floor. Would own phone sound better then than language school contribution?

Good point Boomboom. Our au pair’s package sort of evolved because the language school round here with loads of au pairs was a bit steep so wanted to help her attend it (quite a lot of local au pairs come through local agency which has cheap deal with school but ours was from au pair world so the prices were much higher for her).

£100-£120 but with the type of accommodation you have, probably £100 (no need for the danger money uplift of sharing a bathroom with under 10s and their tricky relationship with theflush). Phone probably more useful to you- if you’re supplying it, you can make it a requirement that it’s on when she’s on duty with the kids.

Unreliable flush danger money 😂 so true!

I live in London and have an au pair. I think this sounds attractive.

When listing the benefits, I would call out the monetary value as that is what they care about at the end of the day. Eg:

We will pay you:

• £90/week pocket money
• £xx per week for English school
• £xxx for flights home
• Sim card with UK calls, sms and data (Plusnet or Smarty are around £7/month and usage is capped so they can't go over)

I think your package sounds good. I've been frustrated to find that I need to pay above London averages to entice people away from the bright lights (we live in a super northern city, close to the centre). We pay a little more (£110), and a bus pass and sim, but a much smaller contribution to language school. We ask 25 hours and that includes some day time hours with a 2 year old.

Just seen these. Thanks for further responses. Got two v interested candidates who seem good and (and quite a few I’m less taken with) so hope it works out.