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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are some points that I agree with on this post especially with the J1 ban.

-Au pair labor market has become a farce.  They are cherry picking wealthy families with older kids, which are not the ones most in need of cheap childcare to begin with.  They now advertise for rematches on FB.  
-Agencies are incentivized to keep their au pairs making the rematch process a farce.  Some au pairs jump many times just to get better jobs.
-Agencies often have no refund policies so your au pair can leave to a richer family, and you are stuck paying the agency fee, waiting for rematch that right now doesn't exist.
-Au pairs work 45 hours a week which to begin with is not a lot for childcare since there is a lot of downtime.  Most parents are forced now to reduce these hours because of threat of rematch. (like the poster who only used 20) 
If you signed up to work 45 hours, you should work 45 hours.  [/quote]

I don’t think I agree with a single thing in this post.

In my 6 years in the program, I’ve never had an au pair leave to trade up (or for any other reason). We have always paid over stipend and not maxed hours all the way to 45 because we don’t suck, not because of threat of rematch. Agencies don’t allow an au pair to rematch and rematch and rematch though. I’ve seen au pairs get sent home and not allowed to keep looking after only a couple. No au pair signs up to work 45 hours—she signs up to be legally protected from working more than 45 hours. Completely different.

I have to assume this poster is a troll since so many claims are not grounded in the reality of the program. [/quote]

I think you're either another troll or privileged...
1) You must be one of those "wealthy families with older kids" given that you pay over stipend and have been hosting for 6 years. The families needing cheap childcare are often more than one child, but one of those children is an infant and daycare costs are astronomical in comparison. Agencies advertise heavily to this market and guess what? Rematches are highest in the crowd needing infant qualified and first time host families.

2) If you've been successful, then you haven't needed to look in the rematch pool lately. Even with CC, there was an au pair recently whose transition doc blatantly said the au pair is looking for a family paying a minimum of $250/week, no other reason for the rematch.

3) Agencies do have refund policies, but they suck. You get a fraction back of what you originally paid.

4) The problem is the au pairs that whine that working up to 45 hours is abusive when it's clear that the program allows up to 45 hours. A family that schedules 60 hours and pays under the table for the extra time is being abusive because they're taking advantage of their power situation even if the au pair is being paid (but usually not fair market rate). There is nothing wrong with a family that schedules 45 hours--most do not squeeze au pairs for every minute of that time, but have children with nap times still on the clock, which is downtime. 
 [/quote]

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