Suzanne Mackay, who runs Knutsford's only au pair agency, claimed this week that families might sack the child carers because they couldn't afford the minimum £3 hourly rate.

"The repercussions are that au pairs will have to go underground," said Mrs Mackay, 42, of Matchmaker Au Pair Agency.

"It is not the family who suffer, it's the girls. They are vulnerable anyway being over here on their own." But yesterday (Tuesday) a Government spokesman said the laws would protect au pairs.

"It will stop them being used as cheap domestic labour," he said. "They should be paid the same as any other domestic workers."

Currently au pairs are foreign guests invited to live with a family for up to two years to learn English.

Most of Mrs Mackay's girls are Slovaks or Czechs aged from 18 to 20 and are paid £40 for a 25-hour week including board and lodgings.

But the minimum wage, which becomes law in April, would class them as workers to be paid at least £3 an hour if they are under 22.

Mum-of-three Mrs Mackay, who has an au pair living with her in Legh Gardens to care for her four-year-old son, said the minimum wage could double the cost.

"Having an au pair used to be elitist but now it has changed," she said.

"I deal with single working parents who struggle to afford £40 a week. It's a way of keeping their child in their own home."

She also felt that employers would expect more work of au pairs if they received higher wages.

"I already have families who throw au pairs out on the streets. This will make it worse," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.