au pair pay during school holidays?

[goocha]

Hi,

I just wanted to get a rough idea of how much people generally pay their au pair if they ask her to help with childcare during the school holidays?

How much would people pay an au pair to look after a 6 year old boy for a full day? Also, would it change if she also looked after our 3 year old so at the same time some days too?

We normally pay her ?80 per week for 20 hours a week. Is ?40 a day extra in addition to the ?80 a week she already gets reasonable? It would be additional hours from 9am-3pm so an extra 6 hours.

Thanks for any advice or guidance.

[dulwichquine]

For what it's worth we pay our au pair an extra ?8 an hour for any childcare duties in addition to hours as an au pair. We pay her ?120 a week for 20-25 hours. We think it seems fair given the responsibilities involved. Hope that helps!

[goocha]

Thank you, that is very helpful. This is our first au pair so we are new to all of this!

I have also been concerned that we may be underpaying our au pair in giving her ?80 a week. She does drop one child off at school every day and pick both or children up after school and looks after them until 6pm. Her household duties are relatively light as she is asked to tidy their rooms each morning and has most Friday afternoons off. However, I do worry that London is such an expensive city that ?80 a week is a difficult amount to live off of while still being able to enjoy a good social life/sight seeing.

I would be grateful if anyone else was willing to share the amount that they pay their au pair for 20-25 hours of help a week as I think we may need to raise the amount so that she doesn't feel she is unfairly paid compared to other au pairs that she meets in this area of London.

Many thanks!

[Mellors]

?100 a week for similar hours, plus gym membership (?40pcm) and phone top ups.

Re holidays - I need a longer day, but pay ?50 per day.

[TillieTrotter]

I just don't understand how you can pay someone who looks after your children ?4.00 per hour. I'm not digging you out but looking after someone's children is hard work and yet they're paid less than a cleaner.

[katgod]

We pay ?100 plus gym membership plus college fees for 3 drop offs and 3 after schools. I don't pay more for the short holidays but do for the long summer one. I do think ?80 is on the low side (sorry) but there are people paying less.

Tillie, au pair and cleaner in very different roles. Cleaner is an employee or self employed person earning a living to cover cost of living in London. Au pair is not an employee, but a member of the family on a temporary basis. She has no bills to pay- no rent, no food, no heating. She is invited to family weekends away, meals etc. She is also not a nanny, and not expected to lay on entertainment. I am happy that we are getting appropriate child are from someone who is very happy to be here and certainly doesn't feel hard done by.

[TillieTrotter]

That's fair comment, so she obviously doesn't pay for accommodation right? I still am shocked (and I've been on both sides of the fence) how little people pay for their au pairs.

[snowboarder]

Yep all accommodation, living expenses and food and often travel is provided as a minimum, and the au pair is often a school leaver who has come to London to learn English for a year before going to Uni, they will go to college and they will do up to 30hrs childcare per week for children over the age of two. Quite different to a nanny...and a cleaner!

After bills, travel and food ?100 per week is more than my weekly 'allowance' to myself!