Op-Ed By Aaron Seyedian
Capital Gazette, March 22, 2023
As a small business owner, I am encouraged to see Gov. Wes Moore and lawmakers recognize that Maryland’s minimum wage has fallen behind the cost of living.
An eroded minimum wage is bad for workers, businesses and our economy.
Raising the minimum wage will boost consumer spending, which boosts local businesses. Minimum wage increases go right back into the economy and help businesses like mine grow and add jobs.
Moore’s plan to address the rising cost of living by speeding up implementation of Maryland’s $15 minimum wage makes good business sense.
My industry, the cleaning industry, is known for low pay, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Our success is proof that fair wages are good for business.
My business, Well-Paid Maids, is a home-cleaning company serving Maryland customers in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. Our business has doubled in the past year.
We pay livable wages, offer a full benefits package and paid time off and all of our workers are full-time employees. That’s given us a happier, healthier and more productive workforce.
It’s also brought us more customers, as consumers search for the quality and reliability that comes from fairly compensated employees.
We have more than 30 employees and are continuing to hire and expand to meet growing customer demand.
We raised our starting pay by $3 in the spring of 2021 in the throes of the pandemic, and the return on investment has been enormous.
The $3 increase – and a smaller one since – greatly boosted the number of applicants applying for open positions. It improved our retention, cutting turnover by almost 30 percent, which had a direct bottom-line benefit.
We’ve calculated it costs us at least $6,000 when an employee leaves — and sometimes significantly more — to advertise the job, interview for it, hire a candidate, train and equip them and onboard them with customers. Reducing turnover saved us considerable money and time.
We never experienced the worker shortages affecting low-pay businesses. People want to work for us.
Hiring workers who didn’t earn enough in their previous jobs, I’ve seen firsthand how higher wages improve lives and go right back into communities and the economy. Employees repair cars, secure decent housing, buy needed clothes, appliances and school supplies, enroll children in daycare, celebrate occasions at restaurants, find home healthcare for elderly relatives and much more.
Raising the minimum wage will help hardworking Marylanders. It will help businesses hire and retain employees, reduce expensive turnover, improve productivity, and delight customers.
But we can’t stop there. We must add indexing to Maryland’s minimum wage so it keeps pace with rising costs and minimum wage purchasing power doesn’t fall behind again in the future.
Washington, D.C., where we also operate, reached a $15 minimum wage in 2020 and has had annual cost of living increases since. Indexing has been good for our business and other businesses because it helps people make ends meet and sustains consumer demand.
It’s time for Maryland to follow suit and join D.C. and 19 states that index their minimum wage to cost of living.
Too often in the minimum wage debate, we struggle to see what’s plainly in front of us.
Why are some businesses struggling to hire and retain workers? Why are we facing a lopsided recovery? Because too many working people are not getting paid enough to live on. Too many businesses are churning through workers instead of investing in workers.
Maryland can do better. It’s time to raise our minimum wage to $15 and add future cost of living adjustments, help Marylanders make ends meet, and fuel our economy.
Aaron Seyedian is owner of Well-Paid Maids, serving customers in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and New York. He is a member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
Copyright Aaron Seyedian 2023