Ich bin mit dem Konzept des Au Pairs vertraut und bin heute in einer Facebook-Gruppe von Schweizer Au Pairs auf diesen Beitrag gestoßen. Sie suchen also im Grunde jemanden, der kocht, putzt, zweimal am Tag mit den beiden Hunden Gassi geht, sich täglich um die Kinder kümmert, ihrem Kind eine Fremdsprache beibringt, 25-32 Stunden pro Woche arbeitet und ihnen dafür 700,-/Monat zahlt??
Ich verstehe, dass sie Unterkünfte anbieten, aber wer übernimmt die Versicherung und andere Kosten? Ich weiß auch, dass Au Pairs ihre Lebensmittel selbst kaufen müssen und wie funktioniert das? Ich zahle allein für meine Krankenversicherung 600/Monat. Sie würden einem Hundeführer, einem Koch, einer Haushälterin oder einem Kindermädchen nicht so viel bezahlen, also warum gibt es das überhaupt?
https://i.redd.it/9mxs4f5ls77h1.jpeg
Von Acrobatic_Charge9651
17 Kommentare
There are very strict regulations around it, and a special visa.
Likely this advert is breaking those laws.
My friend has one and I think the minimum they could pay them was 1,500 per month, and hours had to be strictly defined, no more than 10 per day.
It seems you don’t know much about an au pair program in general.
The host family pays for health insurance, transportation, usually food and groceries, language lessons.
The 700/month is fun money. It’s not a horrible deal for someone who just got out of school, wants to explore a new country and learn a new language.
Today’s generation. „I’m 18 have no work experience and have not seen anything in the world but expect 10k a month from a family I don’t know which give me the maximal freedom and a completely new experience in a new country. The 10k please so I can complain during my stay all the time“.
An au pair doesn’t pay for the groceries.
Getting your food/housing taken care of is part of the deal.
And yes, looking coldly at just the numbers, it may seem like an unfair deal at first.
But a good au pair placement is not an employee/employer relationship.
It’s a host/guest relationship with a focus on children, travel and cultural exchange. Now there are definitely some families who take the piss, and treat their au pairs poorly. But that not how its supposed to go.
If things go well, the host family will have their children minded and household supplemented by a loving, stable and capable young person.
And the au pair will have had a unique travel experience and cultural exchange, with a stable, comfortable home base and little worries, hosted by a helpful and welcoming family and having explored their country of preference.
I think that if that’s not your goal as either an au pair or a host, you should just look elsewhere and save everyone a lot of headaches
They don’t pay „only“ 700.-
They also let you live there. So Add a Rent of 1500.-/month. Good which equals 400-500.-/month. You don’t Need a Car, Electricity and so on which equals also about 500-700.-/month.
I’m more used to the traditional au-pair setting in Switzerland: young people (usual under 18) going to another region to learn the language. It was a mostly domestic institution.
I don’t how frequent the international au-pair thing was in the past. I hear more about it now but it might just be because of my bubble. I notice that it often involves older people and it can sometimes be closer to „having a cheaper nanny“.
If following the law, there are also limits on how many hours the au pair can work per week and hpw much they can work on their own: 30h and max 5h per day With childcare at least one parents must be at home during half of the au pair’s working hours.. 700 seems to be around the legally required amount for this.
Some, if not all, cantons also require language courses paid by the host family. I believe all cantons require the host family to pay 100% of the accident insurance and 50% of the health insurance.
There are many cases where au pairs have really been exploited but this does not look like one of them.
No, it is not at all like slavery, and it is absurd to compare it to that.
gives big Parasite vibes lmao
I’ve noticed when a non Swiss person “criticises” anything Swiss related, the Swiss people will always gang up on that person and will find justification even in modern day slavery.
However, if a Swiss person wrote this post, the Swiss would find the appropriate laws where the breach is occurring 😅
Don’t try to get approval from Swiss people, they will never do, even more so not on Reddit 😉
Doesn’t sound like slavery, but they sure sound insufferable 🤣🤣
I did some research and found this listed as source on the canton Bern website:
*“Sie sind dazu verpflichtet, für Ihr Au-pair eine* ***Versicherung für Berufsunfälle, Berufskrankheiten und Nichtberufsunfälle*** *abzuschliessen. Für Krankenkasse und weitere Versicherungen sind die Eltern des Au-pairs zuständig. Bei der Anmeldung auf der Einwohnerkontrolle muss das Au-pair einen Beleg der Krankenversicherung vorweisen.”*
So essentially an Au Pair needs to pay for their own health insurance. Even though it’s legal that the pay is 700/month it still doesn’t feel fair when most of the pocket money will be gone for insurance anyway. I would understand if it were indeed about cultural exchange mainly but 30h/week is like a 70% job.
Au pairing in Switzerland is meant to be a cultural exchange program, not a cheap childcare or housekeeping solution. It is also regulated.
Looking at this advert, it appears to fit the basic legal requirements on paper.
The real issue is what happens in practice. A significant number of au pairs end up working far more hours than allowed and taking on many more household duties than the program was designed for. When someone is essentially working as a nanny, housekeeper, cleaner, dog walker, and childcare provider, that is no longer the cultural exchange the au pair program was intended to be.
In those situations, the “au pair” should be treated as an employee and paid at least the applicable minimum wage for domestic workers, with all the normal employment protections.
Several Swiss cantons have started tightening the rules. Geneva has gone even further by applying the cantonal minimum wage to everyone over 18, including Au Pairs.
For any au pairs reading this who feel they are working significantly more than agreed, being asked to perform excessive household duties, or are otherwise in a difficult situation, don’t assume it’s normal.
Contact the Swiss Nanny Association (SNA) or a local support organisation for advice. You may have more rights than you realise.
In many if not most cases it’s modern slavery. Which the Gutmenschen market as a „cultural experience“.
“We are not big on screens “
“We eat vegetarian”
Shocking revelation at the end!!!
Let’s be clear: many people looking for an au pair what they really want is a cheap maid. Ideally, the au pair should only take care of the children, and on a very light-way. Cooking for the whole family, cleaning or other tasks aren’t part of the aggreement.
In addition, most au pairs are foreign young women, who are more likely to be exploited by the host family due to inexperience and legal troubles in a foreign country