New data shared by the State Department shows the number of au pairs in the United States fell by 13% in 2025.
Families and agencies are blaming immigration policies under President Donald Trump for fewer young people from other countries being interested in coming to the United States. And with a shrinking pool of au pairs — 16,840 last year, compared to 19,408 the year prior — host families who can afford an au pair worry they could lose out on the program for good with fewer workers and agencies.
State-by-state data is not yet available for 2025. But advocates note Massachusetts’ situation is unique. Under state reforms that went into effect in 2020, the number of au pairs here has dropped at a staggering rate, with just one quarter of the au pairs there were pre-pandemic.
“Yes, the numbers are down — and that, in part, reflects the fact that au pairs now need to be paid at the Massachusetts minimum wage. They need to paid at a fair level,” said Audrey Richardson, an attorney who leads the workers’ rights unit at Greater Boston Legal Services.
Massachusetts law mandates that au pairs be paid an hourly minimum wage and qualify for a litany of worker protections. Those requirements substantially increased costs for families. As a result, far fewer host families are signing up.
In every other state, au pairs are paid about $200 for up to 45 hours of child care per week.
“We don’t mourn the decline of what is a fundamentally flawed program — the au pair program,” Richardson added. “That’s because au pair agencies recruit young people under the premise of a cultural exchange, but then all too often those young people find themselves working as low-wage child care providers for long hours at outrageously low pay and without protection from workplace mistreatment.”
Families in Western Massachusetts worry they won’t be able to host au pairs for much longer. Au pairs are matched with families through federally accredited agencies — and there’s only one left, Agent Au Pair, that serves Western Massachusetts.
“My husband and I have literally said: Why don’t we just move to Connecticut?” said Krista Kitchen, whose family has hosted several au pairs in Northampton. “[Au pairs] should have a living wage, and the way that it’s done in other states seems like exploitation to us. We also feel like the unintended consequence of the program not even being available in Massachusetts — if you’re able to pay for it — is really, really unfortunate.”
If too few families and au pairs in the area want to participate in the program, they worry that last agency could stop being able to connect au pairs to host families in the area. That fear was exacerbated for Jamie Rowen when she looked at the agency’s portal for her next au pair. She found only a few prospective au pairs available.
“The fact that there were a handful that were signing up to be part of the program exhibited to me the danger of this program just collapsing,” said Rowen, whose family hosts an au pair in Amherst.
It’s unclear if the federal government is shrinking the supply of au pair visas or opting to deny prospective au pairs. Responding to questions about au pair visas, a spokesperson for the state department said the Trump administration reviews every visa application to make sure they don’t pose a risk to the safety and security of the United States. Visa interviews for au pairs last summer were delayed under a sweeping pause on consular interviews, but have since resumed.
The nation’s largest au pair agency, Culture Care Au Pair, says it hasn’t seen a dip in interest.
“Rather than a decline, we’ve recently seen record‑breaking numbers of prospective au pairs eager to participate—especially over the past month,” said Natalie Jordan, senior vice president at Cultural Care Au Pair. “The program remains a vital bridge between cultures, creating global families and lifelong connections that strengthen our communities and our world.”
Still, families say harsher immigration enforcement under the Trump administration have dissuaded young women from participating in the au pair program. Rowen says the au pair who’s living with her now feels unsafe.
“She feels in danger — just as I would if I were in a foreign country, and people who aren’t citizens were getting kidnapped,” Rowen said, referencing frequent arrests and detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I can only imagine what young people who have never been to the U.S. are thinking when they look at what’s happening on the news.
“If I were an au pair host family looking to host someone and I lived in Minneapolis, I mean, are you kidding?” she added.
Kitchen says her family is leaving the au pair program after several years. She and her husband — both emergency medicine physicians — are switching to a private nanny to look after their three children.
“Bringing a vulnerable female Hispanic person to the United States felt — that definitely factored in for us, that we’re not sure if we can guarantee that person’s safety anymore,” Kitchen said.
But, ultimately, it came down to cost. One of their children is starting elementary school, and they’ll be pulling their 4-year-old daughter out of private preschool and keeping her home with a nanny. Kitchen hopes that’ll save their family $20,000 to $30,000 in the next year.
Richardson hears families’ concerns about how burdensome it is to pay for child care in Massachusetts.
“Obviously, we need changes to make child care more affordable and more accessible,” she said. “But what I think is really important is that we shouldn’t be doing that on the backs of young people who are recruited for on the premise of a cultural exchange and to find themselves in a bait and switch — that, when they arrive here, they are being paid at outrageously low levels for long hours of work.”
Mike DiMauro leads Rowen’s agency, Agent Au Pair. He told GBH News that, so far this year, his agency is seeing even less interest in 2026: Signups from prospective au pairs this year are down about 30%.
“What’s happened is obviously the immigration policies of the country are impacting people’s desire to come here — whether it’s tourism, education, higher education and cultural exchange programs,” he said. “The optics are not great if you’re looking at the U.S. from outside right now.”
