Determining Au Pair salaries can be quite the conundrum! This is because each family has such different needs, especially when it comes to working hours, so there really is no conclusive rule of thumb. There are so many factors that come into play that it is easy to get it wrong. If you set the salary too low, you run the risk of losing your Au Pair to another family willing to pay a higher salary, if you set it too high you run the risk of feeling an unfair exchange and developing resentment.
Because Au Pairs work predominantly part time, there is no set salary reference point to rely on. There are some websites you can go to that reference hourly rates, but it is actually more complicated than this. In this article, we shed some light on Au Pair salaries so that we can resolve this issue once and for all. We have set an Au Pair salary rule of thumb: stick to this and you can’t go wrong.
Hourly rates don’t work
Au pairs look for set monthly salaries, it is very difficult to find an au pair who is happy to get paid per hour. The reason for this is that, as you can imagine, the Au Pair needs to have an idea of how much they are going to get out every month so that they can plan their budgets. Au Pairs in general want to fill their available time with Au Pair work, if they are working for a family who, in the interview, indicated that they need him/her for 25 hours a week, but only end up using her for 15 hours a week, the Au Pair is unable to get other work to make up for all these lost hours! An hourly rate is just too unstable and Au Pairs are likely to shy away from families offering this kind of salary.
Attracting high quality Au Pairs
Ok so now we know to avoid the hourly rate set-up, but now how do we know what kind of monthly salary to offer? Au Pair salaries vary according to the amount of experience or qualifications they have, but also according to the number of hours you require them to work. The more hours you require an au pair in a week, the higher the salary, and the higher the salary, the higher the probability your position will attract the good quality candidates.
Below is a comprehensive guide for working out your Au Pair’s monthly salary based on your requirements.
Exceptions to the rule
Now there are some additional factors that come into play that will affect the salary you pay your Au Pair. For instance, if they only have 4 months previous experience as an Au Pair, but are in their final year studying to become a teacher with roughly 30 weeks teaching practicals under their belt, then they will need to be paid slightly more than indicated in the above table. Teaching students, as you can imagine, are in high demand, so they often get offered slightly higher salaries.
When an Au Pair has a childcare related qualification, or is studying towards one, it means that they are choosing a life path with children- a huge plus. These Au Pairs should be offered a slightly higher salary than average. We do recommend that if you want a high-quality candidate, that you consider offering a salary slightly above market value.
Figuring out your Au Pair’s salary can be a complicated task, one that you really want to get right first-time round. When you find a good Au Pair, you want to hold onto him/her for as long as possible (it is never fun and can be very disruptive for children to have Au Pairs chopping and changing). Although there are many factors involved in keeping the same Au Pair with your family for as long as possible, you don’t want to kick yourself for losing him/her over something like salary.
If you have any more questions about Au Pair salaries, please don’t hesitate to contact us: enquiries@aupair-extraordinaire.co.za or 010 612 0278- we are always happy to assist wherever we can.