Aaron Seyedian is careful to make the ever-so-slight distinction between his housekeeping business and its quasi-competitors. Well-Paid Maids is not a company that simply happens to pay a living wage. It’s a living-wage cleaning company. Its entire branding rests on the idea of treating employees justly. For the 12 maids on board, that means a starting […]

At her former cleaning job, Kimberly Reyes was paid a set amount, in cash, even if the house was a disaster. Sometimes there wasn’t enough work, so she got a second job working nights and weekends at a restaurant. Because she was a contractor, she had to save up to pay taxes on her income […]

This D.C. home-cleaning service pays its employees a living wage of $16 per hour. Will it catch on? Aaron Seyedian is running an experiment. He has launched a service to provide housecleaning services in the D.C. area and is asking residents to pay as much as $139 to have a spotless one-bedroom apartment. That’s more […]

Imagine it, a home care company that charges more than its competitors and tells clients why—because it pays its caregivers a higher wage than everyone else. A new company in the home cleaning space, Well-Paid Maids is doing just this. Private duty companies might find inspiration in the model, even if it doesn’t translate perfectly […]

Nearly 18 months into an experiment of paying employees a starting wage of $17 an hour, Aaron Seyedian’s cleaning service business is making money and looking to expand beyond Greater Washington. Since launching in August 2017, D.C.-based Well-Paid Maids LLC has brought in roughly $325,000 in revenue, $290,000 of that coming this year. Seyedian, who […]

When Aaron Seyedian, a former World Bank staffer who became a management consultant, decided to make a major career move and start a novel home-cleaning service in the District of Columbia, he first tried telling his story with a traditional banner ad on a popular District forum, but it produced no results. So he set […]

The home cleaning industry has a reputation for squeezing profits out of low-wage labor. But Aaron Seyedian is turning this model on its head, offering higher employee wages and better benefits. He is gambling that people will pay more for a cleaning service that does good by its workers, and that he will pick up […]

Cruz is originally from El Salvador, and has been living in the US since she was three.  Born deaf, she did very well in school throughout her life, but that didn’t translate into a well-paying job, as she had hoped. “I went to school for many years because I wanted to earn a living wage, […]

Aaron researched how firms in other high-income countries like the U.K. manage to pay living wages. It helps to have organizations like the Living Wage Foundation, an accounting firm-sponsored group, able to certify more than 3000 companies currently paying a living wage. Aaron figured out the math needed to offer a clean residence through “Well-Paid […]

Aaron Seyedian moved to Washington, D.C., to make a difference in the world, and when he found that his work was unfulfilling, he decided to put his money and his career on the line to test his values. He’d long supported the concept of paying workers a living wage, but rarely saw proof of it […]