Is it working hours when... ?

One of the most important parts of my jobs as an Area Director is answering questions regarding the au pairs' schedule. While the answers are not always black and white, we can offer some very helpful guidelines.  This week, one of my au pairs emailed to ask about working hours. Karina and her host family understood the maximum of 10 hours a day, but it was what constituted “working hours” that seemed to be a question.

Karina was scheduled from 10am-8pm. While just 10 hours, the host family would not be arriving home until 10pm. Since the au pair would put the children to bed at 8pm, they did not see why hours the kids were sleeping would count as work time.

After hearing from Karina, I got in touch with her host family to go over the work hours again. While her hours worked on paper, they over looked one important rule of thumb: should there be an emergency, who would be in charge of the children? Clearly, with no other adults in the home, the au pair would be the care giver. Armed with this new perspective, the host family adjusted Karina’s schedule to be more in line with Department of State schedule requirements.