The pilot program in Seattle hopes ditching the gig economy leads to better service Modern tech companies like Uber and Airbnb have pioneered the idea of the gig economy, where independent contractors perform services for customers they find on platforms hosted by said tech companies. But one of the biggest tech companies of them all has been experimenting with another business model?actually hiring its own employees.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Amazon has quietly started hiring house cleaners in Seattle as part of a trial for Amazon Home Assistants, a variation on Amazon Home Services, which the company launched three years ago to connect handymen and housekeepers with customers in need.
But the service has been slow to catch on, and Amazon has had trouble differentiating itself from similar services offered by Handy and TaskRabbit. The trial run in Seattle suggests Amazon thinks having more control over the workers performing these tasks might outweigh the money saved by using independent contractors, who don?t get benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. The Amazon Home Assistants website says cleaning, laundry, dishes, and taking out the trash are among the services it can provide. It offers a number of cleaning service plans that vary in price depending on the size of the home or apartment and the frequency with which a customer would like said services.
For example, a weekly cleaning for a modest-sized apartment would run an estimated $138, wh...