Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love our AP and the experience has been wonderful so far. It works for us right now while our kids are in school and all on different schedules and needing a chauffeur etc. Our Au pair has been a wonderful fit so far.
But my kids were in a full time naeyc daycare before this and to compare my practically teenage AP to the PROFESSIONAL childcare workers they had before is just laughable. These women have early childhood degrees/certifications, years of experience, continual training, licensing requirements, and a passion/calling to the job. They were totally my "village" and my mentors/partners in raising my kids as babies.

My Au pair, again, is great but she is not a child expert. She watches my kids in the afternoon and shuttles them around. The idea that APs should be paid the same as full time professional nannies/childcare is, frankly, laughable. If so, then they need to have the same qualifications.

We would not participate if the stipend was raised. we pay a lot in expenses and room/board/extras and if it were that much more I'd go back to hiring professionals.

Professional nannies in this area make so so much more than the stipend tho that there's plenty of middle ground.

Not really. I'm sure there are six figure nannies in this area, but it's also fairly easy to find excellent nannies with experience and great references for 15-18/hour.

Anonymous wrote:We pay the minimum and our APs are fine with it as far we know, even though some of their friends (extraorinares or families who just wanted a candidate for some reason) made more per week.
We have an easy (25 hr/week during school) gig in trendy area of Arlington where AP can walk to metro/bars/etc. The ones that I have heard being paid more either are working full 45 or have special needs HC, or maybe share a bathroom or some non-perfect set up/suburb location so HF makes it up with more $$$.

Maybe OP's AP was living in nebraska or something so HF increased the pay to get her for a year, would not be the first time I have heard of it.

I posted that we pay over stipend. FWIW we live in a trendy neighborhood in the district, AP has private bath, no special needs kid.

We pay the minimum and our APs are fine with it as far we know, even though some of their friends (extraorinares or families who just wanted a candidate for some reason) made more per week.
We have an easy (25 hr/week during school) gig in trendy area of Arlington where AP can walk to metro/bars/etc. The ones that I have heard being paid more either are working full 45 or have special needs HC, or maybe share a bathroom or some non-perfect set up/suburb location so HF makes it up with more $$$.

Maybe OP's AP was living in nebraska or something so HF increased the pay to get her for a year, would not be the first time I have heard of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes but they don't also live with you and you don't pay all their living expenses. The only way the full cost + inconvenience of hosting plus the lack of experience of an Au pair makes sense is if the direct costs of the fees/stipend are reasonable. I am not sure how much higher they could go before the vast majority of people decide it's not worth it when you take all costs into consideration. It would just become some unique, niche market purely for Families seeking the cultural/language aspect.

so in line with the program's design, got it

That isn't the program's design. I am not really sure where you got that from.

It is crazy to pay much more. My first au pair was amazing and if there was N option to extend a 3rd year I would have done it.. But, to get here exactly where I needed it probably took 6 months of scaffolding and building up. And I had to deal with random Fridays that she wanted to take off, random days of wantedodd, random days of ending early, 2 small fender benders (500 each). So was she worth more? Yes, the 2nd year. Did I give her more? Yes, but not by the stipend. Bigger gifts, more random here is some extra money for your trip bonuses.

My new au pair is in month 3 and has been a LOT of work to get up-to-speed. no way I would pay her more. I'm hoping she can figure things out but we may have a personality mismatch. But because of the low stipend, it actually makes me less likely to rematch because she is trying. If I was paying more 100 percent chance I'd rematch. Rematch rates would skyrocket. Maybe the program would get better because only 10 percent of the people wanting to be ap's would get a job so you would only get the best. But there would be way less people in it...

And I had a nanny before her who could take on 100 percent at day 1 so I know the difference.

I found up to $200. In the second year I give either $220 or $240 depending on how good they are.

Anonymous wrote:Yes but they don't also live with you and you don't pay all their living expenses. The only way the full cost + inconvenience of hosting plus the lack of experience of an Au pair makes sense is if the direct costs of the fees/stipend are reasonable. I am not sure how much higher they could go before the vast majority of people decide it's not worth it when you take all costs into consideration. It would just become some unique, niche market purely for Families seeking the cultural/language aspect.

so in line with the program's design, got it

Yes but they don't also live with you and you don't pay all their living expenses. The only way the full cost + inconvenience of hosting plus the lack of experience of an Au pair makes sense is if the direct costs of the fees/stipend are reasonable. I am not sure how much higher they could go before the vast majority of people decide it's not worth it when you take all costs into consideration. It would just become some unique, niche market purely for Families seeking the cultural/language aspect.

Anonymous wrote:I love our AP and the experience has been wonderful so far. It works for us right now while our kids are in school and all on different schedules and needing a chauffeur etc. Our Au pair has been a wonderful fit so far.
But my kids were in a full time naeyc daycare before this and to compare my practically teenage AP to the PROFESSIONAL childcare workers they had before is just laughable. These women have early childhood degrees/certifications, years of experience, continual training, licensing requirements, and a passion/calling to the job. They were totally my "village" and my mentors/partners in raising my kids as babies.

My Au pair, again, is great but she is not a child expert. She watches my kids in the afternoon and shuttles them around. The idea that APs should be paid the same as full time professional nannies/childcare is, frankly, laughable. If so, then they need to have the same qualifications.

We would not participate if the stipend was raised. we pay a lot in expenses and room/board/extras and if it were that much more I'd go back to hiring professionals.

Professional nannies in this area make so so much more than the stipend tho that there's plenty of middle ground.

I love our AP and the experience has been wonderful so far. It works for us right now while our kids are in school and all on different schedules and needing a chauffeur etc. Our Au pair has been a wonderful fit so far.
But my kids were in a full time naeyc daycare before this and to compare my practically teenage AP to the PROFESSIONAL childcare workers they had before is just laughable. These women have early childhood degrees/certifications, years of experience, continual training, licensing requirements, and a passion/calling to the job. They were totally my "village" and my mentors/partners in raising my kids as babies.

My Au pair, again, is great but she is not a child expert. She watches my kids in the afternoon and shuttles them around. The idea that APs should be paid the same as full time professional nannies/childcare is, frankly, laughable. If so, then they need to have the same qualifications.

We would not participate if the stipend was raised. we pay a lot in expenses and room/board/extras and if it were that much more I'd go back to hiring professionals.

Anonymous wrote:I too would likely leave the AP program if minimum wage were required. We give up a lot and incur significant additional expenses to host an AP. The flexibility is great but I imagine the program would quickly collapse if minimum wage were required in addition to all of the other expenses and perks paid for or provided by families. It would become at best an economic wash; never mind the significant commitment of time and effort that goes into hosting an individual from another country.

I mean it's literally a cultural exchange program so if the exchange student aspects are work to you maybe not a great fit to start with. If I didn't have kids who needed babysitting I would be very interested in hosting exchange students. Hell, we probably will when our kids are older.

I too would likely leave the AP program if minimum wage were required. We give up a lot and incur significant additional expenses to host an AP. The flexibility is great but I imagine the program would quickly collapse if minimum wage were required in addition to all of the other expenses and perks paid for or provided by families. It would become at best an economic wash; never mind the significant commitment of time and effort that goes into hosting an individual from another country.

$195.75

Anonymous wrote:

Actually I HOST au pairs - I don't USE them - for the flexibility and the opportunity to have a young woman live in my home who I can trust as a family member with my children. I also give generous bonuses at the end and perks throughout the year. I do round up the stipend but that's it. This is supposed to be a cultural exchange program where we welcome this young people into our homes and our families. The reason there is a class action is because of the attitude that this is cheap labor and au pairs are LESS THAN. The word means ON PAR. Let's not forget that PLEASE!!!

The minute I have to pay minimum wage or more ON TOP OF the $9000 Agency fee, AP's room, board, car insurance, cell phone, gas, other living expenses, education, repair of things AP breaks/misuses, extra vacation expenses.... I am DONE with the program. The majority of host families feel the same. All these items add up to $15,000-$20,000 per year, and it is for the benefit of the AP.

If they change the program so that APs pay for all costs to get to America, and live in shared apartments and pay for their own food, transportation and expenses,
THEN I will pay $15/hr to the AP- since I don't have to pay for all the extras.

Anonymous wrote:We don't round up. The stipend is the stipend, but we glad do/give extras on a regular basis. We're early in our AP tenure but I've been trying to think of a "banking" system where she earns a weekly bonus for her travel month - but only gets it if she makes it to the end of the year. Does anyone else do something like this?

We give a 3rd week of vacation and occasional Fridays off when she wants to travel for a long weekend. We do this because we have slightly flexible work schedules and because we have 4 kids, so it's an extra perk. I agree the stipend is the stipend.

I definitely think there are trolls on this board trying to stir up the pot. They come up every year or so citing the "horrible" treatment in the AP program. Truth is all work environments (Au Pairs, Nannies, Corporate jobs, etc) are going to have a few bad apples. Doesn't mean the whole program is bad. I know dozens of happy host families and AuPairs, abiding by the rules of the program and having a good experience