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

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[quote=Anonymous]You clearly are not part of the program and are just here to troll. The au pair program is regulated by the state department. You can learn about it here:

https://j1visa.state.gov/programs/au-pair

As for your “question”, under “Protections For Exchange Visitors” at the link above, you will find this:

“The State Department has activated a helpline to ensure the health and safety of its exchange participants, including au pairs. All participants have a right to be treated fairly and to report abuse without retaliation or threat of program cancellation.  Among other prohibitions, no sponsor may threaten program termination, or otherwise retaliate against an au pair solely because he or she has instituted a complaint or taken action to gain assistance from an outside entity regarding a complaint.  Au pairs can contact the State Department at any time via the hotline 1-866-283-9090 or at jvisas@state.gov.”

Further, as noted in a response to you above, rematch is available. Moreover, au pairs have counselors (LCCs) available to them, and they can be housed with the counselor or other host families until they are rematched.

Do nannies found on care.com have this level of support or protections?

Let’s look at this from the host family perspective, too. Shouldn’t families be allowed to decide who cares for their children? The vetting in the au pair program FAR outpaces the alternatives:

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/care-com-puts-onus-on-families-to-check-caregivers-backgroundswith-sometimes-tragic-outcomes-11552088138

Which is why the CEO of care.com stepped down last August:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/care-com-founder-to-step-down-as-ceo-months-after-wsj-report-11565089901

So that is why parents are fighting this legislation. The protections for au pairs already exist, and are better protections for both caregivers and families than the competition (care.com) that families would be pushed into using if the au pair program becomes untenable.

[quote=Anonymous]How is it fair that when au pairs get taken advantage of, and complain, they frequently get punished by getting sent home?[/quote][/quote]

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