Maryland governor signs nation's first state-wide 'living wage' law

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May 2007

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Maryland governor signs nation's first state-wide 'living wage' law
Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland signed the nation’s first statewide living wage bill on May 8, giving fresh momentum to a movement that seeks to raise wages through legislation.

Under the law, employers with state contracts will generally have to pay workers a minimum amount — $11.30 an hour in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and $8.50 an hour in the rural counties, where wages and prices are usually lower.

The Maryland state minimum wage is $6.15 an hour, one dollar above the current federal minimum.

“This law lifts tens of thousands of families out of poverty and into the middle class,” said Tom Hucker, a first-term Democratic delegate to the Maryland House and before that the executive director of Progressive Maryland. “Today Maryland shows the rest of the country a good way to honor work and fight poverty.”

Progressive Maryland led a broad coalition of labor, faith, and civil rights groups in lobbying lawmakers for the reform. The group previoulsy led grassroots campaigns to pass local living wage ordinances in the state's two biggest jurisdictions, Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, to generate momentum for a statewide law and drafted and lobbied the statewide bill through the General Assembly three years ago, when it was vetoed by then-Gov. Bob Ehrlich.

"We should not use tax dollars to create poverty jobs," said Maryland Del. Herman Taylor, the other co-lead sponsor of the bill. "With enactment of this bill, Maryland state government is getting out of the poverty business."

"Progressive Maryland fought hard for this bill over many years, so it feels great to finally win," said Sean Dobson, Progressive Maryland's Acting Director. "It's gratifying to see that lawmakers ended up listening to the thousands of constituents who voiced support for this bill."

Nationwide, 145 cities and counties have enacted living-wage bills, which generally require businesses that receive government contracts — and sometimes those that receive subsidies — to pay an amount above the federal or state minimum wage. The highest living wage in the nation is $14.75 an hour in Fairfax, California.

In 1994, Baltimore became the first city in the country to require a living wage for city contracts.

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