I am so tired of the nannies who come on here to troll host families with their illogical, circular reasoning:

-“I have tried to find a nanny willing to work non traditional hours with transportation and I can’t.”

-“you’re just not paying them enough. You could find someone if you offered 1 million dollars an hour.”

—“I cannot afford $1million an hour.”

—“well then you just want cheap, exploitative childcare.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2013 Bernie Sanders said this setup is a scam.

Very true, exact quote:

"This program is a scam," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on the Senate floor this week. "It is not a cultural-exchange program. It is displacing young American workers at a time of double-digit employment among young people, and it is putting downward pressure on wages at a time when the American people are working longer hours for lower wages."

So there are young Americans that will come live in my house and wake up with my kids at 7am and then take them to school, have a free afternoon for 6 hours, but then pick them up and take them to activities? Please, tell me where I can hire these people.

And for all the families on here who keep saying "doesn't seem like this will affect me much because I don't use many hours," it will still involve a lot more headaches of hour-keeping, payroll taxes, etc. that you may not be thinking of. And you know, you could just advocate for the program in general to help us stop the above nonsense narratives that there's an army of workers clamoring for split schedules childcare jobs.

What compensation package are you offering?

If you cannot attract a worker at this wage, you need to pay more. The solution is not to exploit people from other countries.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2013 Bernie Sanders said this setup is a scam.

Very true, exact quote:

"This program is a scam," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on the Senate floor this week. "It is not a cultural-exchange program. It is displacing young American workers at a time of double-digit employment among young people, and it is putting downward pressure on wages at a time when the American people are working longer hours for lower wages."

So there are young Americans that will come live in my house and wake up with my kids at 7am and then take them to school, have a free afternoon for 6 hours, but then pick them up and take them to activities? Please, tell me where I can hire these people.

And for all the families on here who keep saying "doesn't seem like this will affect me much because I don't use many hours," it will still involve a lot more headaches of hour-keeping, payroll taxes, etc. that you may not be thinking of. And you know, you could just advocate for the program in general to help us stop the above nonsense narratives that there's an army of workers clamoring for split schedules childcare jobs.

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2013 Bernie Sanders said this setup is a scam.

Very true, exact quote:

"This program is a scam," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on the Senate floor this week. "It is not a cultural-exchange program. It is displacing young American workers at a time of double-digit employment among young people, and it is putting downward pressure on wages at a time when the American people are working longer hours for lower wages."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, those are the families who will leave first. There are so many options for after school care and for hourly after school sitters that it doesn't make sense to pay room/board for someone in addition to everything else. I will let others who may know more about MA chime in, but from what I can tell from hearing from host parents in MA, it's the ones with infants where the program is still cost effective. For 20 hours of childcare a week, it wouldn't be worth the overhead of paperwork and agency fees.

I won't pretend to be an expert on the policies or anything. I know we have school age kids and would just go back to camp and after school programs. I'm not cheap or trying to find cheap care since it actually costs more now to host an aupair than it did to have my children in an extended day program. I liked them being home after school. It's why we would leave when the aupair program becomes more than 3 times as expensive as our extended day option at school. Right now, we can justify it by the luxury of it all. At some point, it become ridiculous.

And yeah, our van has in-dash navigation so not sure the smart phone/dumb phone argument is exactly the same for us. I hardly use the phone navigation. I think most of those perks would disappear for most families.

I don't understand what you are saying. for those of us who use under 20hrs a week of childcare, why would be leave? There is no added expense...

If I needed aftercare, I would use that, but we need a driver, this is the reality of having older children. I don't need someone to watch them, I need a driver. I don't skip aftercare "because it is nice for the kids to come home after school" My oldest is in 8th grade, there is no aftercare for him anyway. Even in summer my kids do camp, but I don't want to be the one driving them-I have a career, as does DH that requires that we give 9hrs a day to our employer, shuttling kids to frineds houses in the summer and picking them up from a camp that ends at 1PM is not compatible with our careers. Many of the camps they do are just 5 hours or so.

Well, I’m one of those HM: use less than 20 hrs now, maybe more in summer. I have two kids that I can even leave home alone officially, and then the oldest can babysit the youngest if I want to... but I need a driver, and a flexible driver. Our family also became attached to our BPs, and I think those relationships and experience influenced all of us in a positive way.

I don’t know if I’ll leave, but it won’t be the same for me. I don’t count hours. I don’t feel like I have employer-employee relationship with our BPs, they are members of the family. Like when my son asks at 9 pm to play (parents are home) and he and BP go downstairs and play a video game for an hour, should I now count this hour as work? And if I have to pay extra for that hour, do I tell my son “No, Larlo can’t play with you now”... They certainly both enjoy the game

What about when I come home from Costco on Saturday, BPs day off, and my BP without asking unloads the car and puts away groceries? Do I count that as work?

If I have to pay extra per week, I’ll probably not invite them on vacations. I certainly don’t need them. We all had fun, and they all have been thanking for the trips and experiences. Do I also count it as work for them to go to DisneyWorld with us?

Do I then charge them AirBnB rates for hosting their mother/brother? Oh, and not to forget to ask to be reimbursed for cereal that their guests ate for breakfast... or just say no to visitors when I have a spare guest bedroom?

If I start tracking time, treat them as employee it won’t be the same. I had nannies, they were employees. I do not invite our previous nannies to hang out with us. I invite my BPs. My previous BP visited when his term was over, just because he wanted to.

These are the reasons why I’ll consider other options. I don’t want the hustle of having undefined relationship...

I think this is the issue that will stop us from hosting again. Yes, we have hosted an aupair for driving home from school and afterschool activities for 2 years. She works 20'ish hours a week. She doesn't do laundry, stay home with toddlers and rarely cooks. She shuffles preteens and a teenager around from school to home and sometimes to scout events.
Is this work the paperwork and tax liabilities for an aupair who is paid hourly? I don't know. We may sit on the sidelines and wait to see how all of the logistics work out.
We have hosted for 12 years. It's been wonderful and we are good friends with every past aupairs. No regrets. I also think it may be time for my husband and I to juggle our own schedules and be the ones who drive kids around or set up carpools, local sitters or something.
I would be lying if I knew what that something is since we have hosted for so long and become reliant on the fact that a flexible, driving aupair is available to help us out. I think it's a good idea to come up with options now and see how everything shakes out.

Good luck to you!

I did without an AUPair for a year and it was noting, but drama. Getting a reliable driver is so so difficult. If your kids are not busy and your job is not busy and you don't travel for work or have partner who travels for work, have at it.

I have one kid in swim who needs to be AT SWIM by 5pm most evenings a good 20min away battling rush hour. I had a kid who needed physical therapy for a sports injury for 2 months. In betwen all that we had Mathnasium, German tutoring, music lessons, and one kid playing travel sports. It was IMPOSSIBLE to find someone who could be on call each day from 3:45-7PM to cart my kids around. If one of us were out of town, it was so so stressful, even with carpools. It took both of us each night to get our kids where they needed to be. Then heloing with homeworks and remaing even tempered with all that chaos? Nope.

We need no more than 20hrs a week and money is not so tight that if we run up against 25, it will be a hardship. I'd rather that than dinner at the drive through or carryout because I had to rush home from work at 4PM to get my son to swim at 5 each day. Another poster was wringing their hands over vacations, groceries, airbnb and the cost of cereal for guests, that is the the least of my concerns. My primary purpose of having an AuPair in this season of our lives is so we can maintain careers without the added stress of figuring out how to get Larlo to Mathnasium and then to practice afterwards. $4.40/hr or $10/hr, it is the same for me.

Preach. We are another family who only needs a taxi driver in the evenings. Believe me I tried making it work by hiring a local person (who carried full coverage insurance with a clean driving record). I had to offer $22/hr plus mileage and could not find consistency.

Only other options would be to make my kids quit most of their sports and move any tutoring and extra circulars to start times after 7PM and I'm not going to do that to my kids.

We use sub 20hr, so I do not really see this as being a big deal. On stipend, education, and agency fees, I average an hourly of $17.69 for our 20hrs. The room and board and extras make me pretty even with what I'd have to pay a local and whatever a premium there is worth the consistency.

Back in 2013 Bernie Sanders said this setup is a scam.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Jean M Quin:
The program could continue to be equally affordable to families but (gasp) less profitable to the agency. There are choices as to who absorbs the difference.

Yes, that is the huge difference. I think elsewhere where labor laws require them to make more, the agencies only charge a couple thousand which is MUCH more reasonable than the $9k-11k currently charged. This would be just about the only way the program survives.

But the companies won't. There will still be states where $7.25 is the minimum wage. So, there will be aupairs there. The elite in other places will have aupairs. Those who need 10-15 hours of work will have aupairs (but they won't make any more than $195.75).
The program will shrink considerably. It seems that aupairs are fine with that outcome. They could make more money if they are one of the lucky few who can get a visa.

None of this will protect aupairs from abuse. Au pairs have a mechanism to mitigate abusing families. From rematch to simply quitting the program, they are protected by more of a support system that live-in nannies. It's hard to deal with rematch or the concern that you won't find a family or will need to pay a flight home, but none of that will be fixed by a higher wage. Reform needs to be done within the oversight and the companies themselves.

While these laws/lawsuits have effectively lessened the amount of host families for years to come, which may make oversight easier by the companies and the state department, it has not addressed the actual structure which is the issue.

I am disappointed that I see this as the end of the program. Some will continue to host, but the vast majority of host parents will not. We need maybe 10 hours a week of childcare if we limit some of the tasks we have our au pair doing now. We could end up paying the $195.75 even at minimum wage. She doesn't work much more than that now. I wouldn't compromise on hours, vacations or extra "things" for her in the future if I needed to have an hourly system. We could make it work, but I'm not sure why we couldn't look into other options which don't have the uncertainty of a wage hike or program overhauls sprung on us as employers.

The agency owners have become so greedy.

Anonymous wrote:Dear Jean M Quin:
The program could continue to be equally affordable to families but (gasp) less profitable to the agency. There are choices as to who absorbs the difference.

Yes, that is the huge difference. I think elsewhere where labor laws require them to make more, the agencies only charge a couple thousand which is MUCH more reasonable than the $9k-11k currently charged. This would be just about the only way the program survives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

And you think them making more money here will HELP this?? Already there are stories of APs going into debt to pay the agency fees to get here.

I completely agree that the program needs some revamping, but top-down, not piecemeal. I'm sure in a few more years of this state law issue making a muck of things that will happen. I'm guessing it won't actually help though since both sides of the aisle seem to be against the program. (Sanders has also majorly criticized J-1 visas)

This just means fewer APs in the US, that is all plain and simple. If you think they're being abused, then that should make you happy. Most truly aren't, but might as well throw the baby out with the bath water.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, those are the families who will leave first. There are so many options for after school care and for hourly after school sitters that it doesn't make sense to pay room/board for someone in addition to everything else. I will let others who may know more about MA chime in, but from what I can tell from hearing from host parents in MA, it's the ones with infants where the program is still cost effective. For 20 hours of childcare a week, it wouldn't be worth the overhead of paperwork and agency fees.

I won't pretend to be an expert on the policies or anything. I know we have school age kids and would just go back to camp and after school programs. I'm not cheap or trying to find cheap care since it actually costs more now to host an aupair than it did to have my children in an extended day program. I liked them being home after school. It's why we would leave when the aupair program becomes more than 3 times as expensive as our extended day option at school. Right now, we can justify it by the luxury of it all. At some point, it become ridiculous.

And yeah, our van has in-dash navigation so not sure the smart phone/dumb phone argument is exactly the same for us. I hardly use the phone navigation. I think most of those perks would disappear for most families.

I don't understand what you are saying. for those of us who use under 20hrs a week of childcare, why would be leave? There is no added expense...

If I needed aftercare, I would use that, but we need a driver, this is the reality of having older children. I don't need someone to watch them, I need a driver. I don't skip aftercare "because it is nice for the kids to come home after school" My oldest is in 8th grade, there is no aftercare for him anyway. Even in summer my kids do camp, but I don't want to be the one driving them-I have a career, as does DH that requires that we give 9hrs a day to our employer, shuttling kids to frineds houses in the summer and picking them up from a camp that ends at 1PM is not compatible with our careers. Many of the camps they do are just 5 hours or so.

Well, I’m one of those HM: use less than 20 hrs now, maybe more in summer. I have two kids that I can even leave home alone officially, and then the oldest can babysit the youngest if I want to... but I need a driver, and a flexible driver. Our family also became attached to our BPs, and I think those relationships and experience influenced all of us in a positive way.

I don’t know if I’ll leave, but it won’t be the same for me. I don’t count hours. I don’t feel like I have employer-employee relationship with our BPs, they are members of the family. Like when my son asks at 9 pm to play (parents are home) and he and BP go downstairs and play a video game for an hour, should I now count this hour as work? And if I have to pay extra for that hour, do I tell my son “No, Larlo can’t play with you now”... They certainly both enjoy the game

What about when I come home from Costco on Saturday, BPs day off, and my BP without asking unloads the car and puts away groceries? Do I count that as work?

If I have to pay extra per week, I’ll probably not invite them on vacations. I certainly don’t need them. We all had fun, and they all have been thanking for the trips and experiences. Do I also count it as work for them to go to DisneyWorld with us?

Do I then charge them AirBnB rates for hosting their mother/brother? Oh, and not to forget to ask to be reimbursed for cereal that their guests ate for breakfast... or just say no to visitors when I have a spare guest bedroom?

If I start tracking time, treat them as employee it won’t be the same. I had nannies, they were employees. I do not invite our previous nannies to hang out with us. I invite my BPs. My previous BP visited when his term was over, just because he wanted to.

These are the reasons why I’ll consider other options. I don’t want the hustle of having undefined relationship...

I think this is the issue that will stop us from hosting again. Yes, we have hosted an aupair for driving home from school and afterschool activities for 2 years. She works 20'ish hours a week. She doesn't do laundry, stay home with toddlers and rarely cooks. She shuffles preteens and a teenager around from school to home and sometimes to scout events.
Is this work the paperwork and tax liabilities for an aupair who is paid hourly? I don't know. We may sit on the sidelines and wait to see how all of the logistics work out.
We have hosted for 12 years. It's been wonderful and we are good friends with every past aupairs. No regrets. I also think it may be time for my husband and I to juggle our own schedules and be the ones who drive kids around or set up carpools, local sitters or something.
I would be lying if I knew what that something is since we have hosted for so long and become reliant on the fact that a flexible, driving aupair is available to help us out. I think it's a good idea to come up with options now and see how everything shakes out.

Good luck to you!

I did without an AUPair for a year and it was noting, but drama. Getting a reliable driver is so so difficult. If your kids are not busy and your job is not busy and you don't travel for work or have partner who travels for work, have at it.

I have one kid in swim who needs to be AT SWIM by 5pm most evenings a good 20min away battling rush hour. I had a kid who needed physical therapy for a sports injury for 2 months. In betwen all that we had Mathnasium, German tutoring, music lessons, and one kid playing travel sports. It was IMPOSSIBLE to find someone who could be on call each day from 3:45-7PM to cart my kids around. If one of us were out of town, it was so so stressful, even with carpools. It took both of us each night to get our kids where they needed to be. Then heloing with homeworks and remaing even tempered with all that chaos? Nope.

We need no more than 20hrs a week and money is not so tight that if we run up against 25, it will be a hardship. I'd rather that than dinner at the drive through or carryout because I had to rush home from work at 4PM to get my son to swim at 5 each day. Another poster was wringing their hands over vacations, groceries, airbnb and the cost of cereal for guests, that is the the least of my concerns. My primary purpose of having an AuPair in this season of our lives is so we can maintain careers without the added stress of figuring out how to get Larlo to Mathnasium and then to practice afterwards. $4.40/hr or $10/hr, it is the same for me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APs are deluded if they think it really gets them more. The state and federal gov't will be taking considerably more in taxes, which would have to be deducted from the weekly paycheck, so no more dodging income taxes by simply not filing.

Also, there's a significant conflict of interest in the groups promoting this and including APs. The nannies, housekeepers, etc. want to kill the AP program in the hopes that their services become more in demand because they've gotten rid of lower cost options for families.

you need to buy yourself a calculator.

Currently if an Aupair works 45hrs a week she makes $4.44/hr. That same AuPair, after mimimum wage gets increased in VA to $10/hr will be making $500/wk (she now gets overtime). Taxes are no different, she still will not have to pay into FICA, as this is a federal issue. her tax rate will go up very marginally. They pay taxes now.

You think someone grossing $200 today, but then grossing 500 in July will somehow make the same amount of money? She will go from the 10% bracket to the 12% bracket. In Massachusetts, employers can deduct up to $77/wk for room and board. AuPairs still come out on top. However you are correct. If I needed childcare for 45hrs a week, plus the agency fee, I would not mess with the drama and hassle of an AuPair.

You need to figure out where the $195.75 comes from.

The State Dept already takes into account federal minimum wage: $7.25 x 45 = $326.25
$326.25 with a 40% deduction for room and board = $195.75

APs make full federal minimum wage, NOT $4.44/hour.

And many MA host families are using a payroll service because they do have to take into account state and federal taxes on a weekly basis.

Their w2 shows 195.75/wk. If they work 45hrs a week, their earnings are $4.35/hr. All agency fees are earned and reported by their sponsoring agency. This money is not "earned " nor is it reported as wages.

Additionally in MA is it not mandatory that families withhold. It is nice to do, but not a requirement. If families choose to use a payroll service for this task, that is their choice.

What w2?

NP, but when they report in wages. Another poster is claiming 45hr a week APs make minimum wage as it is, which is simply not true. If it were that would be reported as income.

I mean, if you don’t believe that then you’re welcome to read the primary source yourself. The FR notice from when the regulations were originally promulgated: 60 FR 8552, Feb. 15, 1995
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-02-15/pdf/95-3597.pdf
The stipend is calculated based on economic data on the average value of room and board provided to au pairs and pegged to federal minimum wage.

This is the crux of the issue—room and board does not have to be reported as income because they are not employees in the traditional sense. They are participants in the exchange visitor program. Application of state labor laws which are interpreted to supercede these regulations unravel that relationship. They will have to report the extras received (cell phone, car use, etc) as income and will be subject to state and local taxes in addition to federal. They will also only be paid for hours worked. Which is why the net benefit to full time APs is negligible and probably worse for APs who work fewer hours.

Dear Jean M Quin:
The program could continue to be equally affordable to families but (gasp) less profitable to the agency. There are choices as to who absorbs the difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.