OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS

Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by quietbritishjim on Monday April 20, 2026 @05:27AM (#47832006)

I'm surprised to read that. Here in the UK, having a live-in au pair doesn't excuse you from paying the minimum wage for all the hours that they're working (approx $2300/month for a 35 hour week). You can deduct an amount to account for the fact that you're providing accomodation but it's strictly limited (approx $400/month).

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by swiftcoder on Monday April 20, 2026 @05:33AM (#47832042)

The Netherlands has a weird and exploitative setup where you can classify your au pair as a "cultural exchange", and then pay them literal peanuts (room and board plus a token amount of "pocket money")

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by __alexs on Monday April 20, 2026 @06:14AM (#47832299)

Another weird cultural quirk of the Dutch that will hopefully go the way of Zwarte Piet one day.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by retired on Monday April 20, 2026 @05:35AM (#47832062)

From what I can see online, the average compensation that an au-pair in The Netherlands receives is 300 euro per month, with living expenses being covered by the family. There is no minimum wage requirement for au-pairs like in the UK or the US.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by spockz on Monday April 20, 2026 @06:48AM (#47832518)

The added cost of having an additional person to provide room and food for way exceeds that €300/month. Especially, when taking into consideration that you might have to extend/renovate the house to lodge another person. Adding an extra bedroom and possibly bathroom is not cheap.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by retired on Monday April 20, 2026 @07:57AM (#47833020)

Adding a bathroom? This is The Netherlands, where most homes have only one bathroom regardless of the amount of bedrooms. She will just have to wait until everyone has used the bathroom before she is allowed to clean herself with what little hot water remains in the boiler.

I assume most people put their au-pair in the attic or a closet like Harry Potter.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by jjcob on Monday April 20, 2026 @07:03AM (#47832621)

Even if you assume the cost of lodging was 1000€ (which it isn't) then the au-pair would still be significantly underpaid.

A normal full time employee costs at least 2000€ a month (salary, tax, pension plan, health insurance, etc). If you are paying less than that you are definietly exploiting them.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by aianus on Monday April 20, 2026 @06:23AM (#47832346)

A semi-skilled English-speaking customer service agent in PH makes less than $700 a month to put this into perspective.

Working abroad is a totally reasonable proposition compared to working in the Philippines.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by throwthrowuknow on Monday April 20, 2026 @06:58AM (#47832587)

So in reality you’re paying for their food, electricity and heat, letting them rent a room for free, and allowing them the use of the other facilities in your home and on top of that you’re giving them a spending allowance of 300 euro.

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by balamatom on Monday April 20, 2026 @08:15AM (#47833177)

In fact, you could do this for a homeless person today, in any city on the globe!

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Re:OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS by swiftcoder on Monday April 20, 2026 @08:40AM (#47833423)

The marginal cost of food/electricity/bed for adding one additional person to a family is drastically less than those things would cost for a person living alone. Whichever way you slice this, the employer is making out like a bandit under this scheme.

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