Reply to Proposed DC legislation re: domestic workers

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I spoke with my Au Pair about the legislation last night-- she told me that there are a lot of APs getting really excited about this prospect, and even though the agencies are encouraging them to remind their host families to write letters, that a number of them are not because they feel like they should be paid more.

It's a shame that this won't accomplish what they are hoping, rather, the program will just cease to exist-- I for one know that as soon as I have to start managing and tracking local taxes again (as we did for our nanny), I will immediately end our participation in the program and use other alternatives.

That said, I get the point of many of my APs friends, which is that many families simply do not treat this program as a cultural exchange, rather, they treat their APs as "the help," and frequently don't respect the hours that they have scheduled, make APs change personal plans late notice and cancel activities with friends, and don't include their APs in travel and other family activities. All of those things I just mentioned contribute to the AP sentiment that if they are only going to be treated as childcare, then they, in turn, should behave like hourly workers (before you jump all over me on this, I totally understand that if we add in cost of living, insurance, etc. that this program is intended to take that all into consideration, but just reinforcing that from the AP perspective, it doesn't feel that way). In particular my AP noted that APs who are in charge of 4 or more children feel particularly taken advantage of, once they get to the U.S. and fully understand/appreciate what the going rate is in the private market for full time help for that many children.

I, for one, will help to lobby to get APs excluded from the bill, however, just want to highlight that it sounds like there certainly is opposition starting to brew. [/quote]

I talked to mine before when the Ma legislation originally came out and she had the opposite perspective - they realize it could shut down the program and are saddened that they would lose on opportunity for travel year, and that they didn’t particularly care about the money...[/quote]

I know this isn't every AP's situation, but somewhere else there was discussion about APs getting into debt to join the program so then feeling forced to stay with bad families, etc. I firmly believe this program should NOT be seen a means to come to the US to make money. That is completely not the purpose of the program. The stipend should be low and seen as pocket/spending/travel money. That said, I recognize that 45 hours is probably too many to justify such a low stipend (even though most APs don't work this much). I think it should be increased or the max hours reduced. I also think there should be better rules in place for scheduling too though that is harder to set up and enforce. There are TOP DOWN issues with the program, but I believe they mostly fall with the regulations and the agencies who really are the ones taking advantage of both HFs and APs. Charging $9k for a year (the same amount the AP will make) while also charging the AP to come here and then charging AGAIN when he/she signs up for another year WITHOUT WARNING. That is the abuse. Cultural Care told my AP out of the blew that it was $400 to stay another year (maybe they had given prior notice, but in her perspective she had no idea)- that is a MONTH'S WAGES and is insane. Of course we paid it for her (AGAIN IT IS NOT JUST THE STIPEND THAT YOU PAY), but she had other AP friends that did not have to pay this and that is systematically unfair. It should be the same no matter what agency you are with if they are go betweens the state dept, APs, and families, they cannot have different rules. [/quote]

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