|
General Assembly Mulls Over State Minimum Wage Issue
Business Groups Want to Stall Initiative
The Sentinel, January 6, 2005
...Earlier in the year, the governor vetoed the living wage proposal (SB 621), which would have raised pay for low-wage workers employed by state contractors to $10.50 per hour. The governor said the raise put too much of a strain on the budget. An attempt to override this veto is expected, but Maryland's largest small business advocacy organization has been working with its members to keep the veto in place.
...Tom Hucker, executive director of Progressive Maryland, an organization in favor of the override, says the bill is a sound, moderate solution to growing poverty and welfare in the state. Despite robust economic and job growth in the state, poverty is up for the third year in a row which some attribute to low wages.
"Financially," said Hucker, "it makes no sense to pay multimillion dollar contracts to these corporations while paying their employees food stamps because the jobs don't pay them enough to feed their families."
...Hucker says business owners can look to counties, such as Prince George's and Montgomery, which have passed similar bills and have continued business growth. "Baltimore has been living with this for 10 years," he said. "Business is booming in Montgomery where they've had this for three years."
According to Hucker, the bill doesn't include small business, but only affects large janitorial, landscaping and parking companies with multi-million dollar state contracts that pay organizations such as the NFIB large sums of money to advocate on their behalf.
...Hucker says the legislation has widespread business support and endorsement from organizations such as The American Minority Contractors, The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and The Korean American Small Business Owners. A recent Gonzales research poll taken in June 2004 indicated a 3-to-1 support of the bill, including a majority of Democrats, 63% of Independents and 51% of Republicans.
| 
