How much do your au pairs spend each week?

[roses2]

I pay my au pair £115 each week. She tells me that she spends it all every week and saves nothing. She goes out nearly every day mainly for coffees so it all adds up. She has started asking me recently if I can pay her a few days early each week as she doesn't have any money. As she is leaving in 2 weeks I don't have an issue with this.

My SIL's au pair is paid £110/week and she was topped up by her parents.

I know au pairs are on a relatively low income but when they are spending more than me each week on going out then my sympathy wanes a little.

Does anyone have any au pair who manages to save on an au pair salary? Do they still get to enjoy their time?

Do you live in an expensive city? Is she paying for transport? Being an au pair isn't a career choice, often it's a means to an end to explore a new place and enjoy being young whilst not worrying about accommodation costs. How old is she? I think you're getting an absolute bargain for £115 per week!

None of mine have managed to save. Being an au pair is about having fun, spending time with new friends, exploring new places. They shouldn’t have to worry about saving.

Having said that, we do always give our a au pairs a bonus at the end of their “contract” so they go home (or stay here) with a bit of money.

Can’t see what it has to do with you whether she saves or not. You are getting childcare for an absolute pittance.

Why would it be any of your business if she saves the money you pay her?

How many hours does she work for that? Sounds criminally low to me

It isn’t a salary, is it? Nowhere near being legal. £115 a week isn’t that much if you want to go out, buy clothes, get your hair done etc. and generally be young and have a nice year abroad.

You pay her £115 per week and you wonder why she cant save it, not that it has ANYTHING to do with you how she spends her money.
Thats peanuts. I would feel awful paying someone such a pittance for looking after my children.

Do you give her a seperate allowance for taking out the kids?

It all depends what that amount is for?

She eats and sleeps for free (presumably you also cover her travel costs? Oyster card?)

So she covers: clothes, hair cuts, coffees, going out with friends, hobbies etc. On just £16 a day. That's very little.

Assuming you pay for all food in the house, all expenses out with the kids etc it's a fair wage for just fun, most youngsters don't have that much disposable income if they are working a typical entry level job and flat sharing! I'm not surprised she doesn't save, many youngsters don't but with future au pairs I would not pay in advance

I have a 22 year old au pair, I pay her £80 a week. I buy and cook the food, do her washing w ours, clean the whole house myself (she cleans the kitchen at night before bed on a Saturday, Sunday and Monday night when I'm at work).
She never goes anywhere (her choice) and sits on her phone all day everyday. She tucks my child in on a Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. She looks after him those nights (he sleeps all night) and she has him 4 hours on a Sunday and 3 hours on a Tuesday. She's supposed to work 30 hours a week but does nothing anywhere near that. She has more than one small wallet bulging w cash. Saves every penny. I pay for all family trips and any other bus trips where my child is involved.
Don't think I'll EVER get an au pair again. Really like having another child and instead of making my life easier, it's a ton harder...

The whole au pair system is exploitative and bound to result in conflict between employers who aren’t really employers and childcare workers who aren’t really workers. Messy.

Oh here we go again, cue lots of posters touting about being an au pair is akin to slave labour.

As stucknoue points out, £400+ per month disposable income is more than a lot of people have after paying bills, food, rent etc.

You need to compare like for like. Even if a young person works for a minimum wage and gets money deducted for accommodation and food, they are still left with loads more than an au pair.

Or do you want to compare them to a nanny who lives in a flat share? They’ll also have loads more money leftover.

As stucknoue points out, £400+ per month disposable income is more than a lot of people have after paying bills, food, rent etc.

So? A lot of people have more financial commitments than a woman in her early twenties. You’re still not paying her a proper wage.

You need to compare like for like. Even if a young person works for a minimum wage and gets money deducted for accommodation and food, they are still left with loads more than an au pair.

But you are also not comparing like with like. An au pair works ~ 25 hours a week, not full time.
I challenge you to show me many young people on minimum wage in major cities who still have £115 disposable income weekly after paying for rent, food, transport (as most au pairs get an oyster card), mobile, internet and utilities.

I don't have an au pair, but was one and had one crap family and two lovely ones, and it really doesn't have to be slave labour.

I challenge you to show me many young people on minimum wage in major cities who still have £115 disposable income weekly after paying for rent, food, transport (as most au pairs get an oyster card), mobile, internet and utilities.

It’s childcare, not a minimum wage job.

herculepoirot2 yes, but au pairs are working 25 hours a week, not 40. And how much do you think a nursery worker - with relevant childcare qualifications - is paid an hour? Many of them are on minimum wage and would have considerably less per week after meeting their bills.

Yes, the au pair system can lead to exploitation and could do with more oversight. But I also don't think that the wages in themselves are exploitative, in a half decent family.

Stuckforthefourthtime

Sole charge of a child isn’t nursery work.

I doubt many au pairs genuinely work 25h/week. Often it's 25+ 2 babysits so 35 - a full time job basically or 'au pair plus' at 35h/week and often babysitting on top so long hours overall. Not to mention lack of National Insurance, pension etc

Assuming 35h/week at min wage for 21 yo - offset accommodation charge (as per government allowances) - that would still be about 215-220 for the worker.

It's absolutely none of your business whether she saves any of that or not. It's her money, not yours. None of your business if any other an pairs have saved either

You are getting incredible cheap childcare, and you say "your sympathy is waning".

It's 4.60 an hour assuming 25 a week. Yes she also gets a room and food paid for, but still it's not very much. You can't say you have less disposable income, she's a young woman and you've chosen to have DC, completely different priorities as to what you spend your money on, if you didn't have DC you would have more disposable income because you wouldnt have her salary, which is automatically what she is spending.

Stapelberg Your au pair is looking after your child for 3 nights and then an additional 7 hrs? That looks about 30hrs to me?

Hi ^^
I'm an au-pair and yes, you can safe as an au-pair if you don't go out or don't spend anything if you do. Here's my experience :
Ten years ago I was an au-pair in Ireland, I was given 110€ pocket money and after three months I managed to safe about 600€ by only visiting Dublin once and not going out and, as you can see, I still spent quite a lot of money (travel, eating out, some clothes).
Next time, 2016-18, in London, I was given 85£ which increased to 120 after I offered to replace their cleaner. I only went out on the weekends (not at night, just visiting the city). Going to central twice a week was about £20 + lunch + maybe a snack/hot chocolate + dinner if I came back late... It was very easy to spend £80 in one week. I would take care of my toiletries (shampoo, face cream, sanitary pads...). In two years, you need clothes, books, tickets to teavel back home... If you manage to safe any money, you spend it when those extra things come round. My phone broke after only three months here and I had to get a new one.
How I learned to safe: take sandwiches from home for lunch and be back for dinner.
At the moment I'm back just for the summer, £120, I don't go out during the week except when the library is closed on Wednesdays and then I treat myself to Costa, but that's £5 minimum. I've been here a month and I have saved about 100€ that will pay for my return ticket.
So yes, you can safe if you do nothing but that's not the point of the experience.

In my most honest opinion, I think that au-pairs should be paid more in a way that they start with 100 or something like that and as they get experience they get oaid more every x months because at the end of the day families are getting very cheap childcare and most of them still ask for languages, experience, teaching qualifications, being older than x... But regardless of how prepare some of us may be, we get all paid the same... Obviously its not the family's to blame, it's a cultural thing.

JoJoSM2 Assuming 35h/week at min wage for 21 yo - offset accommodation charge (as per government allowances) - that would still be about 215-220 for the worker

But it wouldn't be in real terms.
Minimum wage at £7.70 x 25 hours a week - £189 net take home (or even assume it's 35 hours, so £251)
Cheapish but decent double room including bills in outer west London £125
Cost of transport including commuting daily by bus £22
Cost of mobile contract £3
Cost of food £20
Disposable income left would be £19 at 25 hours, or only £70 at 35. Plus plenty of au pairs have use of cars, gyms etc, some have en suites and the like.

Yes, minimum wage in London is below a true living wage and should be increased... But it simply isn't the slave labour stated. Plenty of au pairs (including me on my first family) are clueless and need a lot more guidance than a nursery worker earning minimum wage.