Reply to Senate Bill No. 804 – VIRGINIA - Minimum Wage for Au Pairs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OMG! I just googled Sophie Lionnet. While her host parents abused and tortured (and ultimately burned her to death), I agreed this recent case is extreme. But what’s more common here is overworking the au pairs with zero required documentation of the hours worked, or what tasks are demanded.

Au pairs should absolutely document everything that goes on, especially where there’s the question of breaking the rules.

The other thing that concerns me the sexual abuse of the au pair. These things aren’t widely reported here, because the AP simply gets swiftly shipped back to wherever she came from. And that’s the end of that, not to mention the unintended pregnancies. Not every AP is willing to get an abortion. Nothing is documented about how often that happens. It could be either the host father (while the mother was away traveling), or one of the boyfriends.

We should know how common this is.[/quote]

Yes, so glad random US states are starting to require paying minimum wage to Au Pairs, this surely will help stop APs from getting murdered IN ENGLAND and all of the sexual abuse from host dads that you claim is so prevalent- please provide any stats you have on APs getting pregnant while in the US and again, tell me how that relates to the issue of this thread- current patch work of states who are upending a federally-run and supervised program. Go ahead, I'll wait. Essentially this bill and those like it make APs more like live-in nannies, except they'll still have a temporary legal status here in the US. Last time I checked, live in nannies can also get abused, murdered, taken advantage of by bad people and ummm pregnant by any number of people. Do you know portend to know their generalized feelings on abortion too for these fictional rape babies? Literally nothing about this current legal mess will solve any of these so-called problems with the Au Pair program that you are so worried about.

No, what you really are wanting with your fear mongering (like the domestic workers unions/lobbies aka nannies who already make well above minimum wage but are pushing these bills in states across the US to kill competition from APs) is to end the AP program. But that needs to be done on a federal level, it is a federal visa program. Ultimately, it would only take a State Department rule to state "Au Pairs are not subject to state or local domestic workers laws" and this grey legal mess would be over. However, given Trump's anti-immigration/anti-cultural exchange/protectionism stance, I won't hold my breath. Au Pairs work ALL OVER THE WORLD. It is scene as an opportunity for cultural exchange ALL OVER THE WORLD. This is not a US-specific program. I'm sure many APs would rather live in European countries than the US given the current state of politics here. Fact is, APs are treated pretty well in the US compared to the culture around APs in places like Germany. In fact, there are AMERICAN GIRLS who go do this work in countries abroad- shocking I know. It's like studying abroad and instead of school, you take care of kids. Are you worried about those American girls getting raped and pregnant? Maybe you should be-- they could go to ENGLAND AND GET MURDERED.

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The fact that it happened in Europe doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the US, in fact it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening in the US.

Like I said the case of this girl is extreme but some APs are being abused be it by being overworked or in other manner.

Part of the abuse is linked to the fact that APs visa is dependent on them staying with the family, if things go wrong and they ask for a rematch there is no guarantee they will find another family and won’t get sent home, for a lot of girls who have spent months or years saving to become an AP and come from a country where the money they make here could change their life back home, putting up with abuse is better than going home after a month effectively losing all the money and hope they put into the program and SOME families know that and pray on that and abuse the system.

It’s not about being less likely to mistreat someone you pay higher (though like everything people seem to have better respect for more expensive things/ services than for lower-priced ones) it’s about family knowing that their Nanny who is a US citizen as nothing to lose by reporting them and standing up to herself and going to the police if need be without any repercussion to herself.

The thing about APs being paid more is that it is unfair that Au pairs who live in California looking after 4 kids for 45 hours is paid the same as an AP with 1 kid living in the middle of Utah. The current AP stipend isn’t a maximum it’s a MINIMUM and most family conveniently stick to it regardless of their own situation.

I am not for the end of the program but I am for better regulation of the AP and fairer pay scale (not the extreme where it’s unaffordable but where both parties are compensated fairly) and I mean worldwide not just the US as, you are right that US is on the better end of the spectrum and Europe is way worse.

I Believe that by making families pay extra past a certain amount of hours, families will be more conscious of how they use their hours and won’t ask for unnecessary work just to make up their 45 hours (like is often suggested on this forum) people who need 45 hours will pay more but should pay more than people who need 25 hours anyway and people who use a reasonable amount won’t be affected.

People who worry about not being able to see their AP as a family member anymore are BS, you either have a good relationship with your AP or you don’t. Most AP will still do that extra half an hour of playing on their day off for free because it’s part of bonding and they want to, they will probably still say «  yes, no problem » when the host parents are stuck in traffic and will be late without handing them over a bill a bit later.  If a family treats an AP well usually she will want to pay it forward and make concession but I think those laws should be in place so in situation where the relationship is more like an employer/employee to start with, APs have room to enforce their rights. 
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