Au pair Salary?

[blimey]

We live in london suburbs and would like to get an au pair. I thought I had done the research on what au pairs earn (ie mumsnet archives!) and thought it was in £60-£80 per week bracket. we are offering £80 per week for usual tandcs ie 25 hours per week - extra pair of hands, little sole care and 2 evenings babysitting. I keep coming across requests for more money though. One girl I liked told me she had been offered £250 per week - this made me think I was in the wrong job (assuming usual tand cs!) She was a kiwi - I guess they command a premium?
so in short what do people actually pay their au pairs these days and has the going rate really gone up?

£250 a week for an au pair??

£250 sounds more like a live-in nanny job. Maybe the kiwi was getting confused between being an au-pair and being a live-in nanny.

maybe that's what she got offered, she is experienced with kids

any salary details anyone?

You have already searched the archive so I feel the amount you are offering is probably about right. Max tends to be the Lower Earning Limit, currently £95 a week... rises to £97 in 2010/11 tax year.

A kiwi wont need to come to london to learn the language, an au pair is usually a young person of foreign background who comes to the UK on a cultural exchange to improve his/her English. In exchange for free board and bed, the au pair helps in the house, and with children. It is not a salary, it is pocket money, as the au pairs expenses should be met. You would also consider getting her a travel or oyster card, a pay as you go mobile phone, etc. Pocket money is usually, or rather it was 2 years ago so it could have changed, 55 pounds for 10/15 hours per week work, or 80 pounds for an au pair plus who works more hours.

Hi, we run an au pair agency, and for a standar au pair the range is £65-£80 (up to 25 hours per week including up to two evenings baby sitting) for an au pair plus this increases to £75-£110 (up to 35 hours per week). £110 is threshold for National Insurance. Au Pairs who are native English speakers and/or experienced drivers tend to be at top of range. Some girls nevertheless seem to have rather unrealistic expectations, so probably better to look for other candidate. In our experience, the majority of girls want to become au pair in London, so it shouldn't be too difficult I would think.

thanks very much!

also some girls still havent realised that some job offered are fromspammers. those tend to affer a much bigger salary though.

and some other girls just have big eyes - just read one complaining that 80/25hours is a bad ap money...

if i remember it right the 110pounds threshold is the tax threshold and ni threshold is 95 (together with the need to register as an employer)?

Are you advertising on Gumtree? This happened to us when we were initially trying to recruit an au pair earlier this year. IME the candidates on APW and via our agency seemed to realise an AP job is what it is -we didn't have anyone trying to inflate the job into a nanny role.

The people I know in London who have au pair's pay 60-65 for 25 hours. We pay more (85+perks) because we are rural. I would think that over 200 would be a live-in nanny job (or a scam) which would be fair enough for an english speaker with childcare experience.

I live in SE London and am paying my ap £90, but she is doing 35 hours a week. I use aupair-world.net and had lots of response and lots of good candidates.

I am using au pair world which is giving lots of candidates but they all seem to think £80 per week is low! I didn't know about the scammers either so that is helpful to know about. We are in beckenham which is quiet but easy to get into central london. I wonder if you are more central whether you can pay less as some girls seem unhappy with it being too quiet around here.

Are you mainly talking to au pairs who have lot of childcare experience? ie. those which could easily be employed as nannies rather than au pairs? Our au pairs (from au pair world) have all been German and tend to be needing to brush up their english for a uni course. We have always taken on au pairs who have had some type of childcare experience but not enough to be left in sole charge of young children (pre-school age).
There will certainly be some aussie/kiwi au pairs with nursery experience who will be looking for 200+ per week but we've never been turned down at 85 per week (and according to my au pair the standard pay in our area is 70).
Certainly there is more competition for central london jobs so families there can get away with offering less (ie. 60-65) but we are totally rural and don't have to offer 200+.
Good luck with your au pair hunt!

IME all the girls on greataupair and aupairworld who describe themselves as 'nannies' rather than 'au pairs', or who have more than one previous 'AP' role are usually not worth contacting - they will inevitably be asking for a nanny salary. Once you cut them out of the equation you are left with people expecting 65-80.

Whilst it is great to have an AP with experience, if they want a higher salary you need to walk away and not even think of negotiating - one of you will be disappointed with whatever number you agree on,and that's not a good basis to start on.

Quick hint: if you do want lots of experience or a wise head, but on an AP salary level then look for male AP's - they have trouble securing roles and will be genuinely happy on normal AP salary. And the two male APs I have had have been miles better than the 4 female ones.

I have hired several nannies from greataupair.com. For £250 per week I would expect an entry level (able to cope with sole charge but expect to do a fair amount of on-the-job training as well) full time nanny.

When I say entry level nanny I mean someone who has proper childcare (nursery, sole charge nanny (hired as an au pair but treated like a nanny would count), childminder, camp counsellor, etc.) experience. Babysat her nephew whilst he slept doesn't count.

StillSquiffy, are you sure? In my experience in the working world men always expect more money than women for doing the same job. We were recently let down by a male au pair, so they are not all so great.

I completely agree with you, btw, about the other things you said - about just stating the pay you are offering and if they are not interested, then they aren't. I'm relatively new to the au pair thing and it's all very problematic at the moment!

I completely agree with you, StillSquiffy,btw, about the other things you said - about just stating the pay you are offering and if they are not interested, then they aren't. I'm relatively new to the au pair thing and it's all very problematic at the moment!

I have learnt that when recuriting through APW it is a numbers game - I know what I want and what the package I am offering is. I expect to got through 50 - 100 first expressions of interest send or received to get to one AP, on this basis I have learnt that if not suitable or trying to change the package quickly move on. With those kind of numbers not time to stop and worry as to why they are not right.

I also tend to offer at the bottom end of the cash salary (albeit with a decent package of car, phone gym membership) as I don't what somebody whose prime motivation is how much cash they can earn. That said once they are here, if it all works well then within the first month I move their salary towards the upper end, but still less than the various tax/NI/employer registration threshholds.

My aupair is from the UK- shes been with us for 9 months and was due to stay for a year. She's now found out that she's pregnant- is not going back home and obviously is not going to be staying on with us, in fact is looking to leave within the next couple of months.
Will I have to pay any kind of maternity pay-she was only getting £65pw? How will this affect her claiming benefits?

You have to earn £97 a week to qualify for SMP - she should be entitled to Maternity Allowance though, which will be 90% of her earnings. MA is a benefit she can claim from the job centre, but she can't claim it til 11 weeks before the baby is due. She'll need to have worked for at least 26 weeks, up til 15 weeks before the baby is due - and she'll need payslips/evidence of her earnings from you, and I think you need to fill in an SMP1 form showing you don't need to pay her SMP.

Oh, and she'll need her MATB1 form that the midwife will give her at 20 weeks (can you tell I'm applying for MA at the moment?).

Do remind her that if she's leaving you before a certain date (the 25th week springs to mind) then she loses her maternity benefits.

OTOH you probably don't want a very pregnant live in au pair so if she chooses to leave then I'd gently point out what she's doing but not make a huge fuss.

No, she just needs to have worked for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before her baby is due. 11 weeks before the baby is due is the earliest she can start maternity leave though (MA is paid for 39 weeks).

Ah x-posts. I don't know the rules for MA vs SMP, only the ones about how long you need to work for before your employer is liable for SMP. It would seem you don't need to pay SMP anyway. Listen to Missus!