Reply to Summary of new proposed AP rules from State Dep't

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To sum up:

Reduction in hours from 45 to 40. 
Raising education stipend to $1200
Paying hourly at $18/hr with the agreed upon hours guaranteed 
56 hours of sick leave (which is ridiculous. I don’t even get that much sick leave) 
4 hours a month HAVE to be for their monthly aupair meeting so it’s a reduction of available childcare hours

Required to have a private bathroom

Made some laughable comment about taking aupairs on vacation and out to eat with the family which would 100% stop for our host family if an aupair is hourly.

$3000 a year roughly for food and board can be deducted

They can only extend with the family they match with in the first year. 
They must have a prepaid return ticket or the ability to pay for one when they arrive

If you add up the company fees (11,000-12,000), the loss of childcare hours and the additional hourly fees, it will be between $60,000-66,000 to host an aupair for 31-40hours
Of childcare in D.C.

This doesn’t take into account the items which are typically covered by a host family: car insurance, gym, cellphone, outings

If you host an exchange student, the family gets a stipend for hosting. If you require 31-40 hours of childcare a week, you get to pay greatly for those hours.

The Department of State makes the argument that this was a program created for diplomatic reasons and not for affordable childcare. It’s clear they do not want to be in the affordable childcare business. They do a terrible job monitoring and overseeing the sponsors who relentlessly peddle au pairs as qualified nannies and then disappear when they turn out to be less than ideal childcare providers.

This proposed rule effectively ends the Affordable childcare marketing ploys and puts the Au pair program back into the status symbol of a wealthy family who needs an extra person to drive the kids. Often it’s the wealthiest families who are not the ones who have the time to welcome and aupair as family but solely as staff.

That’s the recap after reading the document. I can’t imagine a scenario where the au pair program makes it through these changes. [/quote]

not quite true. For the states with low minimum wage, the au paid is actually paid a lower stipend if part time.

Tier 1 stipend is $8/hour. With $130/hour deduction at 31 hours, the stipend becomes $118/week.

Also for many people, the au pair program is not 'affordable childcare'.  I hear that agencies market this to some families but not to us. They were very clear that there were a lot of expenses expected from host families. Like cell phone and car use, vacations, outings. We are projected to spend $45-50K all in. The typical minumum spend for a family is $30K. Not including the value of housing and I'm not counting extra utilities.

I don't live in the Dc area anymore but it is a high cost of living area. Housing is expensive. Gas is expensive (probably the most expensive in the country). Cars and car insurance are expensive. Food and restaurants are insane.  However we have really top notch daycares  and preschools which are not that expensive. Nannies are also plentiful. An au pair costs more than many nannies. My daughters pre school costs $1100/month;. This would reverse if we had a lot of kids like at least 3. An au pair does not provide professional child care, so for us the value is not in the child caring.

The value is in the cultural exchange and the flexibility. We would be considered Tier 3. We already made the decision to exit the program as it's not worth it for us. The au pairs are not generally not interested in much of a cultural exchange and we have found a nannie that costs less than the program, and we get our room back.  With these proposed changes it's a complete no brainer for us. [/quote]

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