Maryland’s minimum wage is set to rise from $13.25 to $15 an hour starting in January 2024 under the recently passed Fair Wage Act.
Previously, the increase was set to take place in January 2025 for large businesses and January 2026 for small businesses, but the cost of living jump has made that goal outdated.
Aaron Seyedian, founder of the home cleaning service Well-Paid Maids, is committed to paying his employees living wages starting at $23 an hour and has been advocating for the bill to become law.
In late February, he attended a roundtable with Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore to discuss the importance of raising the minimum wage on an accelerated timeline. (Gov. Moore later gave Well-Paid Maids a shoutout in a Baltimore Sun op-ed.)
Seyedian also showed his support in the House of Delegates and the Senate. In his Senate testimony, he explained how increasing Well-Paid Maids’ own wage floor by $3 in spring 2021 helped his business:
“The benefits of this pay increase surprised even me. [It] massively boosted the number of applicants applying for our open positions. And it also improved our retention over the next year, cutting turnover by almost 30%.”
Seyedian just recently increased Well-Paid Maids’ starting wage again — to $23 an hour.
Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, stated that the Fair Wage Act increase will benefit more than 163,000 Marylanders. The Maryland Center on Economic Policy reported that affected workers would see their wages increase $0.54 an hour. That’s $782 a year.
In Maryland, the “Fight for $15” is now over, and many politicians and activists are already planning to propose a higher wage floor in future years. When they do, they can count on Well-Paid Maids to once again show up and make the case for a living wage for all workers.
You can learn more about Well-Paid Maids’ mission and support its living-wage business model when you book a home cleaning online.
