The only consolation is that your cotisations are reduced (if any?) but of
course that doesn’t pay the pension. I had looked into childminding from
home and luckily several other ladies in the area did the course and set up
so not enough children to go round - luckily because I hadn’t spent the
time doing the training so nothing lost !
I’m still not clear whether you are talking about people working self employed or as salariées. Could you clarify, please? Without knowing that, none of this is making any sense to me. An agency is legally obliged to pay an employee minimum wage or collective agreement rate for that profession, whichever is higher, plus all other social rights including pension. Ditto a private individual who pays via the cheque emploi system. French employment legislation makes very sure of that, which is good in a way and bad in a way. I would be very surprised if there was a special loophole for nounous, it’s a recognised activity like any other. You can only work at slave labour rates either if you’re self employed, or on the black.
There is a special régime for assistantes maternelles, it is fairly complicated and no they don’t get the smic even though the rate is based ona multiple of it (ie 0. something x), it is 2.72€ per hour minimum per child at the moment and there are all sorts of employer cotisations and allocations, holiday pay etc etc as well - look at the paje site for the alloc calculation and at the service-public page particulier employeur: rémunération d’une assistante maternelle. You get a tax rebate as well. It is a bit different if you have an employé (e) de maison. Quite different if they are employed by an agency as then they are just salariés like any other.
Thanks for explaining that Véronique. Is it in fact assistantes maternelles who are employed by the state who’re paid this way?
Marc, that has nothing to with hourly rates and is completely legal more than that - nounous are regulated by the state and that’s the amount the state has set and there’s absolutely nothing au noir, on the contrary, you have to pay the nounou a bit more to cover her holidays etc. 
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sorry, just seen that you’ve already answered, Véro
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they are employed by the parents and registered with the state
No, it is for particuliers employeurs: a.ms employed by the state will be in crèches or schools and will have a different status.
And pay is as it is because otherwise nobody in jobs that pay the smic would bother working since their entire salary plus would go on child care, and it evens out since ass mats can have up to 5 charges I think.
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Thanks again VL and AH. It’s actually starting to seem not that bad a package if you can take up to 5 kiddies (if you can find them of course), plus full cotisations are paid including holiday pay. Pension contributions too?
And if that’s your only income could you also claim the benefit that supplements low household income (RSA or prime d’emploi I think)?
No I’m not considering a career change ! I was just horrified to think that people work for so little reward 
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Yes pension contributions etc (travel costs, lunch by arrangement etc etc) are on top too but no sick pay unless the nounou is ill more than 14 consecutive days when I think the state takes over - I am most certainly not an expert but there’s quite a lot of info about it and I don’t think it is that hard to become an ass mat so it’s a good option for many people. You can claim some alloc or other if you earn less than 48€ per day per child. Good grief the more I look at it the more I wonder what I’m doing doing my job ( but no I’d go mad).
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Many thanks for the education Andrew. I’m shocked!
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Hi Tiana,
I came to respond to your question and saw many, many responses with tonnes of great tips that I shall be investigating myself!!
I translate & my OH is a British sparky, and we are currently moving to the Lot-et-Garonne from the south coast - spooky!
My ‘version’ of translating is similar to yours, and equates to a bilingual virtual assistance service I think, and as already pointed out Micro-entreprise would be the place to start.
When we moved over (15 years ago) I translated my husbands qualifications myself, and after the ‘stage de préparation d’installation’ at the Chambre de Métiers - obligatory now for all Artisans, even Micro-Entreprise, he was good to go. It seems likely that they might want an official translation of qualifications these days at the Chambre de Métiers but we didn’t need to.
We haven’t moved yet so I couldn’t say whether there is much demand for an English electrician - and my husband has changed métier since so will not be competition!
For advertising there are so many options out there for free listings - including a great Business Directory here on SFN - but AngloInfo, inEnglish, Expat.com, amongst many more…
Where are you moving to? We fell for a spot in Fongrave, near Villeneuve-sur-Lot and although it’s taking forever to get sorted we hope to be there from March next year 
So much great info, thank you Anna
Thanks Andrew, good to know
Sorry everyone for lack of reply but been quite busy the last few days (which I don’t complain about!)
Will reply to you all when on my laptop tomorrow as not easy from my phone but thanks for all the help and advice so far