>Your mentioning cleaning houses, however, is what prompted me to think in this direction. One of the most valuable things the agencies provide is a membrane of

>Your mentioning cleaning houses, however, is what prompted me to think in this direction. One of the most valuable things the agencies provide is a membrane of legitimacy, shielding the customer from the liability and administrative headaches (insurance, which you mention, being one of them) of being an employer. Really, I think it's a pretty big problem... There are /many/ people (US citizens, even) willing to clean houses for $10/hr... and I think the difference between $10/hr and the $30/hr you are going to pay an agency (of which $7/hr goes to the poor schlep actually doing the work) makes the difference, for many people, between a weekly cleaner making sense and not. I think that lowering the liability and hassle barriers to becoming an employer (with an eye towards cutting the agencies off at the knees) would benefit the workers on the low end quite a lot.