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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t think APs realize (or don’t GAF since it doesn’t fit the narrative) of all that goes into the HF’s financials.

HF pay (and these are LOW amounts for a HCOL area, but trying to apply for an average cost of these..)
$9,500 annual fees
$195 x 51 weeks of stipend = $9,945
$800 x 12 months of rent for one bedroom in a shared home w all paid utilities  = $9600
$50 x 49 weeks of additional food costs = $2450

If you had the AP work 45 hours per week for her allowable 49 weeks per year, that’s 2,205 hours. The total above / total hours = $14.28 per hour. That’s not even adding in additional pieces like a cell phone, car, insurance, gas, more than minimum stipend, travel stipend charged by the agency, $500 educational stipend...
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I don’t think it’s that APs are unaware of the costs as much as it is irrelevant to them and potentially rightly so.

Any company has costs related to their employees that probably amount to the salary they perceive or near on, I have no idea what your job is but most companies provide an array of benefits to their employees + have to pay employee related taxes, rent on the office space/industrial space their employees are working in, company cars, gas for those cars  etc...

Ultimately your boss’s outgoings are irrelevant to you as an employee because those are costs related to him/her owning a business and so I am sure you don’t go enquire about the company’s outgoing nor feel grateful you are being paid what you are knowing how much your boss pays in company’s rent/outgoing because your salary has nothing to do with the company’s outgoing and therefore you have no reason to feel bad for earning a certain amount when your boss pays so much already in other things.

With APs it’s the same, yes there are many perks to being an AP that the family pays for BUT those are costs a family agrees to when entering the program, therefore they cannot then expect APs to be grateful for something that is non-related to her.

As a family you know that if you want an AP you need to pay 10k in agency fees and another 10k in stipends, you also know that if you want someone to live in you will have to provide a private room and food. You also know that if you want your caregiver to drive your kids places you will need to provide a car and gas. Those are the requirements for YOU to have an AP. APs therefore don’t have to be grateful for you to comply with the rules of the program you chose for yourself in full knowledge of the cost and how they feel about their wage shouldn’t be based over what the program costs you but the work they provide, the same way how you feel about your wage is about the work requested for you and what you provide the company and not how much the company costs to your boss.

If you find the AP program too expensive it’s on you to chose a différence choice of childcare for your family, but don’t make a childcare choice and then expect the people who partake in this program to be grateful you pay « so much » for  that program. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be aware that it has cost and grateful for the opportunity. But the weird « APs are not aware of how much the program  costs me and if they knew they wouldn’t feel so bad about their stipend » is quite strange. If someone makes minimum wage at a grocery store or restaurant,, I am sure running a store or restaurant is not cheap but I don’t think it changes anything for the staff who ultimately get paid the bare minimum.

So anyway two stories can be right. The program isn’t cheap for families (though it is much cheaper than a live-in nanny) but it doesn’t mean it is well paid for Au pairs.

The problem here is the agency and their fees that amount to the Au pair stipend as well as the stipend not being based on number of kids, state cost of life, hours worked etc...

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