By Kelsey Butler
Bloomberg, Dec 7, 2023
... This week, when I wrote about minimum wage increases taking effect across the US on Jan. 1, my LinkedIn comments were flooded with readers saying that the changes would be bad for business owners and drive up prices for consumers. ... It turns out that there are business owners — including executives at Patagonia Inc. and Unilever Plc’s Ben & Jerry's — that actually think higher wages are good business.
Aaron Seyedian is one of them. In 2017, after a career as a consultant, including at the World Bank, he started a cleaning company called Well-Paid Maids, with the ethos of paying every worker a living wage.
The company, which has about 35 employees pays at least $24 an hour in Washington DC and $27 an hour in New York City — well above the minimum wage in both cities. Seyedian said Well-Paid Maids will bring in about $2 million in annual revenue this year.
“Investing in your staff is a smart investment, so that for example, half your employees don't quit this year,” he said in an interview. “My paycheck has gone up when my company has grown.”
He said it costs about $6,000 to hire a new person, which gets mostly eaten up by training costs but also covers job ads, new equipment and time spent by operations staff. Seyedian said that Well-Paid Maids has a 25% turnover rate for staff that have been there past the three-month mark, far below the industry average.
“Thrift doesn’t grow business,” he said.
The data also shows that thrift doesn’t necessarily make things cheaper for consumers, either. ...
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