The House Economic Matters Committee voted for a $15 minimum wage bill on Monday night – but without many provisions sought by advocates, including those that would have ended subminimum wages for youth, agriculture workers and tipped workers.
The bill, as passed 17-7 by the committee, would also slow the rate of the minimum wage increase, starting in January 2020 and not reaching $15 an hour until 2025.
A leading advocacy group expressed disappointment that lawmakers would “weaken the bill and leave so many workers behind.”
The bill as passed by the committee retains the exemptions currently in state law for workers who aren’t subject to the minimum wage. The committee’s bill would also alter the subminimum wage for workers under the age of 20, who can currently be paid 85 percent of the state’s minimum wage for their first six months of employment. The committee amendments would allow employers to pay teenagers 85 percent of the state rate until their 18th birthday, when workers must then be paid the full minimum wage unless otherwise exempted.
Another major provision of the bill that the committee struck down would have automatically increased the minimum wage beyond $15, tied to increases in the Consumer Price Index.
Committee Chair Dereck E. Davis (D-Prince George’s) said that provision might have made life easier for committee members because they wouldn’t have to consider minimum wage bills every term, but said it could also set up a system of runaway increases that would put Maryland out of step with other states’ wage rates. Davis said lawmakers are elected to make the tough decisions of setting the minimum wage rate periodically and they should continue to do that.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Danielle E. Gaines over at WTOP