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Money

Contact Congress to Protest Taxes on Au Pairs!

by cv harquail February 11, 2012

Dear AuPairMom Readers- I never thought that I’d be writing a post asking you all to take political action, but there’s an issue that hits the Au Pairing Community right at the heart. Congress is deciding this week whether to impose a 7.65% FICA tax on au pairs. Yes, that’s right. Congress wants to tax [...]

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When an ‘Au Pair’ should really be a Nanny

by cv harquail January 19, 2012

Sometimes you just don’t want to read the subject lines of the emails that show up in our AuPairMom emailbox. The email posted below came with the subject line, “Am I being taken advantage of?”. But, by the time the au pair finished telling her story, it was clear it the subjuct should have been [...]

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Too Much Generosity or the Wrong Kind? Trust your heart

by cv harquail October 8, 2011

Dear AuPairMom- The posting from the host mom offering the fancy host family situation make me think of the choices that I made when I was matching with my host family. I talked to many different families. All of them had some different things to offer, cars yes or no, no Saturday nights, babies and [...]

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Getting a Refund from an Unsupportive Agency

by cv harquail April 11, 2011

Readers, there is sadly more to the story of Deflated HostMom. She and her DH are having trouble getting the finances between the family and the au pair, and the family and the Agency, settiled to their saristaction. As Deflated HostMom describes: We have already paid our current au pair her full education allowance, and [...]

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Au Pair Pocket Money: Do you pay more than the required stipend? (Poll)

by cv harquail February 15, 2011

[This post addresses customs and Au Pair regulations in the USA. It may or may not be relevant to host parents in other countries.] The amount of weekly pocket money (or stipend) that a host family is required to provide to an au pair is set by the Federal Government. Right now (as of Feb [...]

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Au Pair Asks: Tips for Getting Money Back Home

by cv harquail May 6, 2010

I was impressed to discover that some au pairs actually save money, either for themselves or to send back home to their parents. Many of the au pairs I’ve known have spent their money here in the USA, either on shoes or on traveling (and occasionally on both. What do mannies spend their money on?) [...]

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6 Reasons why your Au Pair should NOT work a second job

by cv harquail March 6, 2010

We’ve talked recently about the issues related to having an au pair work extra hours for the host family, and we’ve also talked about whether you should let your au pair babysit for your friends. But we haven”t talked about whether you should permit your au pair to work at another job. “Why haven’t we [...]

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Do Au Pairs have to pay income tax?

by cv harquail February 22, 2010

I have absolutely no idea whether Au Pairs have to pay US income taxes. I always thought that one of the benefits of using an Au Pair Agency was that the agency somehow dealt with that? Or maybe they don’t make enough money really to have anything to pay? I honestly don’t know. But someone [...]

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Best Practices for asking your Au Pair to work Overtime

by cv harquail February 19, 2010

Based on the overwhelming response to the post from NJ Dad wanting to know more about common practices when folks ask their au pairs to work overtime, I thought it would be a good idea to summarize the key findings. Just to be clear– nobody is recommending that you expect your AP to work over [...]

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Extra Hours: What’s fair pay when you break this taboo?

by cv harquail February 13, 2010

Many parents find that 45 hours a week is not enough childcare. Either you have an emergency late night at work, a kid home sick, a snow day, or a bookclub meeting. Some parents have work + commute combos that mean they’re away from home 10 hours a day, m-f, even if they stagger their [...]

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