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Isn't an easy and reasonable response to this to charge the au pair for rent at the market rate for a single room in the neighborhood in which the family lives.

Isn't an easy and reasonable response to this to charge the au pair for rent at the market rate for a single room in the neighborhood in which the family lives. Room and board is a non-trivial portion of cost of living. Paying minimum wage and providing housing would mean an au pair makes far more than minimum wage when all is said and done.

Fezzik 7y ago
That sort of defeats the whole purpose of what au pair programs are for, which is primarily cultural exchange, not employment. For some reason the article deftly glosses over this. The general rules for being an au pair are: you’re under 30 (depends on country of origin and country entering), your native language is different than that of the country you are visiting, and you are unmarried. The foundation of the program is you get free room/board and a small living stipend in exchange for being immersed in a culture and helping out with a family - an au pair is more like an older sibling than an employee. Or is supposed to be. Obviously there are ways a host family can abuse the system. There are a variety of programs like this (Peace Corps and AmeriCorps come to mind) where young people are provided unique cultural opportunities at the cost of earning little to no money. Edit: spelling.
- boublepop 7y ago
  > au pair is more like an older sibling than an employee We all know that this is definitely not the case. You can put all sort of romantic ideals into the system. But there is a definite employer/worker relationship and au pair are not just expected to “be part of the family” but to work as cleaners/nannies and chefs. If you want the system to work as you explain it, the au pair should be completely shielded from doing any non-voulentary work at all, and it would be a completely different system.
  - jobigoud 7y ago
    Normal members of the family aren't shielded from doing involuntary work.
    - boublepop 7y ago
      In the sense that they do not get sent out of the country for refusing to make dinner they are.
- malandrew 7y ago
  Thanks for the details here. Doesn't this mean that that au pairs filing suit here are going against the purpose of the program so long as the host family isn't abusing the system (i.e. more than ~40 hours of help a week)

Fezzik 7y ago

That sort of defeats the whole purpose of what au pair programs are for, which is primarily cultural exchange, not employment. For some reason the article deftly glosses over this. The general rules for being an au pair are: you’re under 30 (depends on country of origin and country entering), your native language is different than that of the country you are visiting, and you are unmarried. The foundation of the program is you get free room/board and a small living stipend in exchange for being immersed in a culture and helping out with a family - an au pair is more like an older sibling than an employee. Or is supposed to be. Obviously there are ways a host family can abuse the system. There are a variety of programs like this (Peace Corps and AmeriCorps come to mind) where young people are provided unique cultural opportunities at the cost of earning little to no money. Edit: spelling.

boublepop 7y ago
> au pair is more like an older sibling than an employee We all know that this is definitely not the case. You can put all sort of romantic ideals into the system. But there is a definite employer/worker relationship and au pair are not just expected to “be part of the family” but to work as cleaners/nannies and chefs. If you want the system to work as you explain it, the au pair should be completely shielded from doing any non-voulentary work at all, and it would be a completely different system.
- jobigoud 7y ago
  Normal members of the family aren't shielded from doing involuntary work.
  - boublepop 7y ago
    In the sense that they do not get sent out of the country for refusing to make dinner they are.
malandrew 7y ago
Thanks for the details here. Doesn't this mean that that au pairs filing suit here are going against the purpose of the program so long as the host family isn't abusing the system (i.e. more than ~40 hours of help a week)