Employment and Barriers to Independence
Poverty and Economic
Well Being
Raising the Minimum Wage
February 13, 2005
Several bills have been introduced in the Maryland General Assembly to establish a minimum wage for Maryland above the $5.15 per hour federal minimum:
SB 89, introduced by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller would establish a state minimum wage of $6.15 per hour. An identical bill has been introduced as HB 391 by Delegates Dereck Davis, Ann Marie Doory and Herman Taylor.
HB 13, introduced by Delegate Peter Franchot, would raise the minimum wage to $7.00 per hour.
Why would Maryland consider establishing a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum?
As a nation, we are approaching the longest period of time that the minimum wage has not been increased since a minimum wage was established in 1938. The current minimum wage is approaching historic lows; the value of the last minimum wage increases in 1996 and 1997 has now been completely eroded by inflation. As a result of the inadequacy of the federal minimum wage, states covering nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population have enacted increases that are higher than the federal minimum.
An increase in the minimum wage would be targeted to workers who live in low-income families. Most low-wage workers are adults whose wages are the primary source of their family income.
Numerous economic studies dispel the myth the raising the minimum wage is bad for the economy or hurts the very workers it is intended to help. Over the last decade a new consensus has formed among contemporary economists that moderate increases in the minimum wage have no discernible negative impact on employment, business formation or profits.
For more information on the minimum wage, read our testimony and visit the webpage of our colleagues at the Economic Policy Institute. MBTPI
Note:
Contact your state representatives on this or any other issue (at the link, click on MY ELECTED OFFICIALS
- Read our testimony on the minimum wage