Au Pairs

What is an Au Pair?

The word "au pair" is a French term, which means "on par" or "equal to," denoting living on an equal basis in a reciprocal, caring relationship between the host family and the children. An au pair will typically be a young woman and sometimes a young man from a foreign country who chooses to help look after the children of a host family and provide light housekeeping. The au pair is given room and board and is typically paid a weekly "pocket-money" salary. Au pairs generally stay with their host family for one year.

An Au Pair is likely to be a single person without dependants aged 17-27 who comes to the UK to learn English language/cultural skills and live as part of an English speaking family. An Au Pair works between 25-30 hours per week, (including evening babysitting) and is paid at least £60.00 per week (Au Pair+ is £80 per week where the Au Pair does additional cleaning / ironing) in addition to the provision of his/her own bedroom and meals. As far as possible, the Au Pair should be treated as a member of the family.

Au Pair Duties

Au Pair duties include, helping with the children, cleaning, washing-up, helping at meal times and ironing.

• Helping and caring for children
• Help in carrying out light housework, eg dusting, vacuuming, ironing, washing up
• Simple cooking and helping at meal times
• Driving - whilst this is not necessary, for most families it is a useful skill to have.

Au Pairs are not trained nannies. They cannot be expected to take full responsibility for the children but at times may work unsupervised when, for example, collecting children from school.

Au Pair Free Time

Time should be provided by the host family for the Au Pair to attend language classes. The Au Pair should have two complete days free per week.

Au Pair Social Life

The Au Pair should be given the opportunity to visit friends and go sightseeing. The host family should also try to provide information on local events and clubs in order to make his/her stay a rewarding experience.

Au Pair Insurance

The host family should check that the Au Pair is covered by their insurer

Au Pair Health

The Au Pair should register with a Doctor and Dentist as a temporary patient. This should be encouraged by the host family as soon as possible.

Au Pair Tax & National Insurance

If the au pair's salary is less than £110 per week then there is no liability to PAYE or national insurance. However, if the au pair earns more than £110 per week then they are subject to PAYE and national insurance.

Although au pairs and domestic workers living with a family can be exempted from the minimum wage requirements this is only when they live as part of the family sharing in tasks and leisure activities on the same basis as the family. Therefore most live in nannies are not exempted from the national minimum wage requirements in which case the minimum employers need to pay are the rates stated above less the accommodation offset.

Please refer to our employer information for more details about your tax responsibilities or contact us for help as Taxing Nannies specialise in calculating au pair tax and can issue your au pair with weekly or monthly wage slips.