* Warning: This is an unofficial, introductory copy of the bill.
The official copy considered by the City Council is the first reader copy.
Introductory*
City of Baltimore
Council Bill R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmembers Clarke and Burnett
A Resolution Entitled
A Council Resolution concerning
title
Request for State Action - Support a $15 Minimum Wage for Maryland
For the purpose of calling on the Maryland General Assembly to enact, and the Governor to sign, SB543/HB664 or similar legislation establishing a statewide $15 minimum wage, to ensure that all working Marylanders can pay for their basic needs.
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Recitals
In Maryland, recent years have seen efforts to make up for the decades-long decline in the real purchasing power of our minimum wage. However, despite these efforts, hundreds of thousands of full-time Maryland workers still do not earn enough to cover basic needs such as housing, food, and transportation. This is an inequitable and unsustainable situation. In America, a full time worker simply should not need government assistance to be able to put food on the table and a roof over their family’s heads.
Raising the State minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023, and then indexing it to ensure that it does not once again decline in purchasing power, would go a long way toward remedying this situation. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, this increase would benefit 573,000 Maryland workers. 90% of all affected workers would be adults 20 years old older, and nearly a third are parents collectively raising 273,000 Maryland children.
The consensus drawn from decades of serious research on the...
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