Taxpayers are paying for a lengthy study that concluded a proposed $15 minimum wage in Montgomery County would lead to fewer jobs, but which businesses participated in the study isn’t being made public.
“We don’t have a list of businesses surveyed,” said County Executive Ike Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield. “The businesses were assured anonymity in order to ensure we got accurate and honest information from them.”
Lacefield said participants expressed concern early on about potential negative repercussions to business owners if survey responses were made public. A $15 minimum wage proposal is expected to go before a council committee this fall, after a successful push was vetoed by Leggett in January.
Business owners reported negative changes if the bill passes, including a family-run restaurant who may no longer be able to hire high school students in the summer and a franchisee who will stop hiring disabled adults and college interns. A fast-food restaurant franchisee reported already cutting table cleaning staff from eight to 12 employees per shift in 2014 to two or three in 2016, in response to already imposed recent minimum wage increases.
Leggett, a Democrat, commissioned the study for $149,600 after his January veto of the legislation from the Montgomery County Council that would have raised the county’s minimum wage to $15 for most businesses by 2020. Businesses have urged council members to wait for the study results.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Glynis Kazanjian over at the Maryland Reporter