Pest Control Houston

Documented: Company's ads tout workers' legal status

It's impossible to miss the barrage of ads for pool, pest and yard services this time of year, with most operators touting their low prices and good service. But one business owner is hoping he can stand out based on his immigration policies.

Raleigh Jenkins, president of ABC Home & Commercial Services, is advertising that his company only employs workers who are legally entitled to work in the U.S. The company uses the E-Verify system, a free federal government service that verifies Social Security numbers.

Jenkins is betting homeowners want to know that the person who's cutting their grass, cleaning their pool or killing their pests is working legally. He also runs criminal background checks and tests for drugs and alcohol.

"I'm sending people into your home and into places your best friends don't go," said Jenkins, who has 200 employees in Houston. "I have to make sure I do my due diligence."

But he says he's competing against individuals who often pay less than the minimum wage or improperly classify their workers as independent contractors, and who have invested little in their business besides a truck and some lawn mowers, edgers and leaf blowers. Jenkins said his lowest-paid employees — the ones who push the mowers - earn a minimum of $24,000 a year. They also receive health insurance and a 401(k).

"When I talk to Mrs. Jones, I have to explain why I'm charging more," Jenkins said. He charges $32 to mow a 6,000-square-foot lawn, while many of his freelance competitors charge $25.

His lawn-care advertisements, however, aren't making the headway he had hoped for.

About a year ago he conducted a focus group of middle-income and wealthy homeowners and asked whether they value doing business with a company that does background checks and uses E-Verify to make sure its workers are legally entitled to work in the U.S.

"They didn't care," Jenkins said. "Women want a cheap lawn service." And men just want someone else to cut the grass.

That doesn't surprise Lou Congelio, owner of Acme Fish, a boutique ad agency in Houston, who said he'd focus on dependability, quality and price rather than the employees' legal status.

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