Reply to Am I bad for eeking out every hour from my au pair?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Of course APs are barely paid - no one said you don't pay fees and other costs but she as a person receives very little - so stop arguing against the facts.[/quote]

But see, I don't agree with this.  Here are my facts.  Obviously I can only base this on our experience, but I don't think we're atypical based on the host parents in the DC area that I know.  Our au pair receives $800 cash a month, all of her food paid for, her cell phone bill paid, a place to live, a car to use (I also paid for her licensing fees and her car insurance for the year), she uses our YMCA membership for a gym.  We give her extras here and there (Starbucks cards, etc), and pay for all activities and travel that she does with us.  Host parents also hand their au pairs $500 in cash toward their classes for the year.

And I know you keep insisting that the $8,000 doesn't go to her, but it absolutely does.  Yes, it's not direct compensation that I am handing to her.  But it pays for her flight to and from the US and her transportation from the training school to us, it pays for background checks and LCC checks on us, it pays for her LCC's salary who supports her for the year and sets up social events and helps her if she needs anything, her health insurance for the year, etc.

I feel like our au pair receives a perfect amount of compensation (monetary and nonmonetary) for the work she does.  And obviously she does too - she's extending with us another year and had so much fun this year both with us and out and about traveling and partying.  And she's from Germany - it's not like she has nothing to go back for and is desperate for any reason to stay in the US.  
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New poster here. I agree with what you said, except one thing. When I was an au pair, I had to pay for my own health insurance. Also, my Australian au pair friends had to pay for their own flight. So it's not like every au pair has flight or health insurance paid for by the family. [/quote]

I'm the one that posted what you quoted.  We've used both Au Pair in America and Cultural Care.  In those agencies, the au pairs get basic health insurance through the agency, although they can pay for more coverage.  Additionally, the agency covers the flights for the au pairs to and from their country and the families pays directly for the au pair to get from the training school to wherever their home is.  Beyond those two agencies, I don't know how it works, but those are two major agencies in the DC area.[/quote]

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