Official Austin COVID-19 thread and discussion. (West, China: small businesses, charge, quality)

[Need4Camaro]

I'm getting word that airliners are no longer requiring passengers to wear masks... ...I don't think that's a good idea.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/a...enforce-2020-5

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Does infrastructure include roadways in this case? And is this like project bidding?

No, almost zero highway related work. Power generation/delivery, industrial facility construction, and mining/O&G related work.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Originally Posted by ATX Wahine

I am luxuriating today in a beautifully clean home. It feels awesome. Oh how I missed them!

We go through Molly Maids. Their employees are American and receive good pay plus benefits. I don’t mind paying more for that peace of mind. It’s a hard job.

What kind of benefits do they have? I would not want to make blanket statements about cleaning services if I have information they provide a living wage and health care. What is the pay? If Molly Maids is out of the ordinary that would be very good. It has been my experience that the actual workers are the ones not getting the "good pay"...team leaders, supervisors maybe, not generally the workers themselves. But, maybe Molly Maids are different.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots

What kind of benefits do they have? I would not want to make blanket statements about cleaning services if I have information they provide a living wage and health care. What is the pay? If Molly Maids is out of the ordinary that would be very good. It has been my experience that the actual workers are the ones not getting the "good pay"...team leaders, supervisors maybe, not generally the workers themselves. But, maybe Molly Maids are different.

I was curious, so googled around a bit. It appears they they don't offer benefits, generally speaking. They apparently market regarding 'benefits', but it appears to be workman's comp and liability insurance only, which isn't an employee benefit.

It appears that pay maxes out realistically around $350 a week. Theoretically, you can make more, but seems the hours and toll on the body make that unreasonable for more than short stints.

In general, it looks like MM is a franchise and how good the job is depends almost entirely on the owner. Some look to have very happy employees, others appear to be a turnover mill.

[ScoPro]

The Maids do our house. We hired them on the recommendation of my DIL since they have been employing their service for 14 years. Very reliable, honest, & competent crew which is pretty stable, as only one of the four ladies has changed in the 2.5 years they have been working here.

I do not know what their legal status is or what their pay & benefits (if any) are, but they seem to be happy in their work and are always friendly.

Added note:
The $350 weekly mentioned earlier is about twice what the average weekly household income is in Mexico, so that is a very strong incentive for younger women with with few skills but a good work ethic to come to the US for employment, especially if they cannot find work south of the border.
In Guatemala & El Salvador the average pay is much, much lower.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

The Maids do our house. We hired them on the recommendation of my DIL since they have been employing their service for 14 years. Very reliable, honest, & competent crew which is pretty stable, as only one of the four ladies has changed in the 2.5 years they have been working here.

I do not know what their legal status is or what their pay & benefits (if any) are, but they seem to be happy in their work and are always friendly.

Added note:
The $350 weekly mentioned earlier is about twice what the average weekly household income is in Mexico, so that is a very strong incentive for younger women with with few skills but a good work ethic to come to the US for employment, especially if they cannot find work south of the border.

Yeah, it all comes down to the franchise holder and whether they are trying to get rich quick or whether they are trying to build a good business. If the employees seem happy and there is little turn-over, that is usually the best indicator. Our cleaning lady's husband has a job with benefits, so that solves the benefits problem for her. I suspect that her mom was a cleaning lady before her. Sometimes her mom rides along to help. Back when her daughter was younger, she brought her along a few times and had her help, as well. I can't remember exactly how she phrased it (it was very diplomatic), but she told us she wanted her daughter to know where the money she spent came from, and also to ensure that she went on to college

[ATX Wahine]

I don’t know what policy Molly Maids corporate holds, but my cleaner has health insurance and a company car. She has worked for them (and us) for years. Seems very happy.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by ATX Wahine

I don’t know what policy Molly Maids corporate holds, but my cleaner has health insurance and a company car. She has worked for them (and us) for years. Seems very happy.

The health insurance is franchise specific, it seems, and not common. Must have a good franchise holder

I think they are required (per the franchise agreement) to provide company car. The gripe I kept seeing was the some workers that were sent many, many miles to do cleaning, but they do not earn anything while driving. Also, the portion that goes to the workers is variable.

[ATX Wahine]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

The health insurance is franchise specific, it seems, and not common. Must have a good franchise holder

I think they are required (per the franchise agreement) to provide company car. The gripe I kept seeing was the some workers that were sent many, many miles to do cleaning, but they do not earn anything while driving. Also, the portion that goes to the workers is variable.

I suspect that rather than offering actual insurance through the company, they offer a stipend to be used toward ACA plans. However they work it out is fine with me; our only stipulation when we began service was citizenship. We didn’t want someone being paid ultra crap wages under the table because they weren’t citizens.

[Taynxtlvl]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I'm getting word that airliners are no longer requiring passengers to wear masks... ...I don't think that's a good idea.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/a...enforce-2020-5

I don't think it's a good idea either. Especially with robust testing still not being in place in most locals and the difficulty of contact tracing on flights and airports. If they want to stay in business they better recommend and enforce. Is so sick of companies and governments being weak and not thinking about the big picture. The sooner these entities get on board and make it mandatory like a lot of stores have with signage and employees posted at entries then the rebels and stubborn will either comply or not shop (fly).