Things start looking familiar when you scan nanny news from around the world. In Australia, a parliamentary inquiry into working families revealed a high number of parents who pay their nannies cash in hand to avoid taxes. Australian nanny employers are denied the ample tax rebates available to those taking their children to daycare centres. In New York, a city council investigation into 38 nanny agencies found nearly half breaking state and city laws, including operating without a licence or charging improper fees to parents or nannies, while many agencies do no background checks on nannies. And the Pennsylvania attorney general's office uncovered an international internet scam whereby a supposed parent sent a would-be nanny bogus travellers' cheques to deposit in her bank account, then asked for the money back when he cancelled the job - of course, he got the nanny's own money.
Things start looking familiar when you scan nanny news from around the world. In Australia, a parliamentary inquiry into working families revealed a high number of parents who pay their nannies cash in hand to avoid taxes.
Australian nanny employers are denied the ample tax rebates available to those taking their children to daycare centres. In New York, a city council investigation into 38 nanny agencies found nearly half breaking state and city laws, including operating without a licence or charging improper fees to parents or nannies, while many agencies do no background checks on nannies. And the Pennsylvania attorney general's office uncovered an international internet scam whereby a supposed parent sent a would-be nanny bogus travellers' cheques to deposit in her bank account, then asked for the money back when he cancelled the job - of course, he got the nanny's own money.
