Baltimore’s “living wage” ticks upward
Wage law for municipal service contracts to rise by 1.5% next year. Maryland’s minimum wage going up on January 1.
Above: Maryland’s current minimum wage is about average for the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimore’s living wage for city service contracts is substantially higher.
The Board of Estimates today approved a 1.5% increase to Baltimore’s living wage from $11.29 to $11.46 an hour.
The new rate, which applies to municipal service contracts handed out by the spending board, will take effect on July 1, 2015.
In 1994, Baltimore became the first city in the nation to pass a living wage law for city contractors based on the U.S. Bureau of Census poverty threshold for a family of four.
Currently set at $23,834 a year, the poverty threshold figure was divided by a 40-hour workweek (across 52 weeks) to arrive at the new hourly wage.
Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who spearheaded the original law, has repeatedly failed to win City Council support to expand the living wage to large retailers.
Retailers and most other private employers in the city are covered by Maryland’s minimum wage. The current rate of $7.25 an hour is set to rise to $8.00 on January 1 and to $8.25 on July 1, 2015.
The minimum wage exempts some categories of workers, including tipped employees at bars and restaurants, some student workers and employees of food service businesses with less than $250,000 in yearly receipts.