Au pair wages?

Hootie19

DD is about to start a new job as an au pair and I was wondering if anyone knew about the regulations regarding wages for this type of work.

I know you have to take into account that she will be provided with living accommodation and her food, so this has to be "priced into" the wages.

Her hours will be 8am to 8pm, five days a week. At least, these are the hours she will be required to be available for. The child's mother is at home all day (she suffers from MS and so, on bad days, can't care for the child, which is why they have au pairs/nannies) and the father works shifts, so is at home sometimes during the day, so the parents may do a fair bit of caring for the child, but this is not definite.

For the above, DD is to be paid £100.00 a week into her bank account. This is done through a payroll company, so tax and NI will be taken care of.

If you take it at basic level, she could potentially be working 12 hours a day, five days a week - so a potential 60 hour week. I'm not smart enough to be able to work out how that computes to an hourly rate, taking into account the tax/NI/board&lodgings situation.

But are there regulations so that an au pair gets paid the equivalent of NMW? And if so, does it seem as though she will be paid this?

Emmzi

have a look here. I suspect the £100 is to avoid paying NI. She sounds more like a mothers help than a true au pair to me, and the wages sound low.

http://www.millennium-nannies.co.uk/index.cfm?act=gen&page=nannyormother

Finefoot

Hello,
hmm, an Au Pair is meant to be from abroad who wants to learn english and live the english family life.
5 hours babysitting a day is acceptable. Room and board in exchange for light household duties, 2 evenings babysitting are expected.

I had Au Pairs for many years, your daughter is being taken advantage of.

That family needs a nanny.
All the best.

ceridwen

"Au pair" is NOT the correct title for the job your daughter is being offered. An au pair should be treated as part of the family and only be expected to do light duties for a few hours per day.

This is a "proper" job and its more than 48 hours per week (bearing in mind the Working Time Directive that people are not required to work more than an average 48 hours per week - unless they sign an opt-out to do so).

The "board and lodging" your daughter receives will be worth a certain amount of money per week - but I do wonder whether £100 per week + "board and lodging" comes to at least National Minimum Wage and it needs to be checked as to whether it does.

Those hours are certainly too long for your daughter to do - what lunchbreak/other breaks would she get between 8am and 8pm? What guarantee does she have that she will never be expected to work at weekends or between 8pm and 8 am the following day? It will be all too easy for your daughter to find herself working outside her normal workhours - since she will be in a position where she is living-in.

I feel sorry for the person wishing to employ her for having an illness like M.S. obviously - it's devastating for someone to have something like that and I expect that there is an inadequate level of support available from the Welfare State to help the would-be employer cope with this:(.

I would think - realistically - that someone in the later stages of M.S. would actually need two full-time carers - not one.

What are the circumstances of the person with M.S.? Do they have a spouse/partner living in and that person will take over carer duties after 8pm and at weekends and holidays?

Owain_Moneysaver

How old is daughter?
NMW is

• £5.80 per hour for workers aged 22 years and older
• a development rate of £4.83 per hour for workers aged 18-21 inclusive
• £3.57 per hour for all workers under the age of 18, who are no longer of compulsory school age

The daily rate of the accommodation offset is £4.51 (£31.57 per week) for each day that accommodation is provided.

So, £100 p.w. + £31.57 = £131.57. Divide that by the age-appropriate NMW rate and you get how many hours' work.

Note that if your daughter has to remain on the premises overnight, she may be treated as being on call and her rest/sleeping hours still have to be remunerated at NMW.