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Comment by fred_is_fred | Hacker News Reader

Its actually a lot simpler than that. If you employee someone you have to pay them minimum wage -- even if you send them a Christmas present -- because that's the law.

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The current situation is an Au Pair is included as part of the family. If you're now paying minimum wage, is the Au Pair now an employee who is treated as an employee or do they still get treated as a family member?

Very true. It’s difficult to imagine someone being both included in the family and also treated with respect. I mean all my other family members work full-time jobs for me for below minimum wage, you wouldn’t want the au pair feeling left out by receiving a decent wage.

Minimum wage here is $19.49/hour. What you're suggesting is:

* Pay $739 weekly * Provide all food, plus cook for them * Provide their own room in the accommodation * Cover the costs of all their utilities (water, gas, electricity) * Take them on all holidays, etc

I know your suggestion means well but it would mean Au Pairs cease to exist. It's lose-lose. The Au Pairs here aren't coming for a poor nation to earn money from back home, they're coming over for cultural exchange. For example, my sisters Au Pair was from a wealthy German family. Maybe it's different in other countries, the article talks about Columbian Au Pairs.

Yes. I am suggesting that you stop hiding behind "they're family" and follow the law. It may be cute to you but it won't be cute when WalMart starts calling its employees "family" as well.

How does Walmart come into this? I've never even seen a Walmart in my life. I suspect the difference here is due to you being American, everything is capitalistic there. In Australia, the LAW actually allows for cultural exchange of Au Pairs. The recommendation is that an average Au Pair works 30 hours per week at the minimum wage but that the host family subtracts $350 per week for room and board (reasonable costs in Australia) and that pocket money is $200-250. So the Au Pair has in fact been paid the minimum wage.

If you cannot fathom how a human could host another human and you can only see transactions then I feel sorry for you.

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