Under the state’s current minimum wage of $10.10 per hour, Maryland workers cannot afford the basics even if they work full time. Workers who support families struggle even more, especially in larger metropolitan areas. Maryland’s Fight for $15 campaign has a simple goal of giving hard-working state residents wages they deserve to cover basic living costs. Our state legislature now has the opportunity to raise the floor for all Maryland workers with the $15 minimum wage bill now before them, but the state’s minimum wage should remain just that: a floor.
Good ideas often start locally. Maryland has a long history of allowing the governments we lead to respond to the needs of our residents and supplement our state protections with innovative policies. For example, Maryland local governments were the first to pass child bike helmet laws, no-smoking laws, measures to protect the environment and paid sick laws. Once our local communities proved that these policies improved the lives of our residents in significant ways, they became the model for future state laws, benefiting all Marylanders.
One size will not always fit all when it comes to our state laws. Maryland’s cities and counties are extremely diverse, and what works for the city of Baltimore may not help the Eastern Shore succeed. The people of Montgomery County have different needs than the residents of southern Maryland.
Our local governments must continue to allow our residents to propose local solutions that go beyond what our state laws can offer and respond to our unique needs. Counties and cities such as ours, for example, should be able to listen to residents when they tell us that they need better job standards or higher wages than what the state can offer. Our local policies have succeeded in the past, and we can trust our local democratic process to subject our local ideas to a thorough, transparent debate that elevates our unique, local voices.
The Maryland Healthy Working Families Act, the paid-sick-leave law that went into effect this year, is a perfect example of an instance in which state lawmakers took the power of local governments to determine what is best for our residents. All counties, towns and cities — except Montgomery County — are now blocked from passing any paid-sick-leave law. We now have to tell our residents that our hands are tied even if they make a good case for why our local governments should guarantee better work standards.
Everyone in Maryland wants what is best for our residents: good health for our families, a clean environment and good jobs at fair, living wages. It can take 10 or more years for a proposal to become state law as policymakers work to reconcile the needs of one locality compared with others in the state. Local governments can and should be more nimble than our state legislature. By working hand-in-hand with our state delegations, we can pass effective state laws that set a minimum standard while maintaining the ability of local governments to make improvements as needed.
Maryland residents desperately need a raise so that they can provide for their families and build the economic security needed to move ahead. We call on the Maryland General Assembly to pass a wage measure that benefits all residents while preserving the ability of local government to work on behalf of our own communities.