Stipends, pocket money

When An Au Pair’s Thriftiness Shortchanges Her Adventure

by cv harquail April 4, 2013

Frugality is an admirable trait. It takes a lot of restraint and self discipline for an au pair to save money from her/his weekly stipend. Whether s/he’s saving for a vacation, a laptop computer, or to send money back home, au pairs who are carefully watching their expenses deserve our support. But when an au […]

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When You Give Your Extension Au Pair a Raise, And She Wants More

by cv harquail January 29, 2013
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What a conversation we’ve been having about whether (or not) to offer an outstanding extension au pair a raise above the mandated weekly stipend! This all was prompted by an email from the aptly self-named “Host Mom Who Wants To Be Fair”. HM2bFair writes: Dear Au Pair Mom, I’m hoping to get some good advice […]

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Does Your Extension Au Pair Deserve a Raise?

by cv harquail January 24, 2013
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The experience of a happy au pair year is its own reward. And extending this positive experience is a great way to turn this reward into a bonus. When an au pair and a host family extend their contract with each other for an additional 6, 9, or 12 months, everybody gets a bonus. The […]

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When you’re away, you still have to pay: Stipends when your Au Pair isn’t working

by cv harquail April 8, 2011
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Dear AuPairMom- Do I have to pay a stipend to my au pair is s/he isn’t needed for childcare? I will be out of the country with my son for three weeks and am not taking the au pair with me since i am visiting my parents. Our au pair already took one week off […]

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Host Parent Tip: Pay Your Au Pair On Time

by cv harquail February 13, 2011
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“Doing something” and “not doing something” do not always have opposite effects. When something that is supposed to be done is done correctly and in a timely way, no one even notices. When the very same thing isn’t done, or is done incorrectly, it shakes the very foundations of a relationship. Case in point: paying […]

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

by cv harquail February 13, 2010
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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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Do you pay your Au Pair for her orientation days?

by cv harquail January 27, 2010
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When do you start paying your Au Pair? Do you consider her training days to be ‘work’ for you, or do you wait until the Thursday night she arrives in your home before the clock starts? For our first au pair or two, we just paid them starting when they arrived, because it didn’t occur […]

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Agency Policies on Withholding Pay: What are they? Calling all LCCs …

by cv harquail January 25, 2010
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Let’s see if we can get some clarity on this question once and for all, and without me calling or email all the agencies to get the official answers. May I call on the LCCs who read AuPairMom, and ask you to tell us what your agency’s official policy is? I’m talking “Official” policy, not […]

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Can you dock her pay if she owes you money? Poll

by cv harquail August 14, 2009

Are there any situations when it’s fair for you to withhold or ‘dock’ your au pair’s pocket money? We skirted around this issue in a previous conversation about when your au pair refuses to work, but never answered it directly. Now, we’ve got a topic request (on Skribit) with a very specific situation: You AP […]

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