Councilmember Roger Berliner says he doesn’t think the county should go it alone when it comes to raising the minimum wage, especially with a movement to raise the state’s minimum wage planned for the 2014 General Assembly.
Berliner asked County Executive Isiah Leggett for his opinion on Councilmember Marc Elrich’s regional minimum wage bill that would raise the county’s minimum wage from the federally-mandated $7.25 per hour to $11.50 per hour over the next three years, in step with Prince George’s County and D.C.
The state measure, which has backing from Gov. Martin O’Malley, would raise the wage to $10 per hour in Maryland.
In a response to Berliner’s letter, Leggett said he supports Elrich’s county minimum wage bill, calling the upcoming General Assembly push to raise the state minimum wage no guarantee.
Berliner wrote that he was “betting on success.”
“To be clear, I am a strong supporter of an increase of the minimum wage at the state level. On the most fundamental level, the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom continues to grow, and we need to tend to those who are laboring hard but can hardly make it. No one questions that the federal minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living, and that is a tougher pill to swallow here where the cost of living is arguably the highest in the state,” Berliner wrote.
“Given these favorable prospects at the state level, I do not see the value in moving county legislation before the next legislative session ends,” Berliner wrote, before asking Leggett for his opinion on the county measure.
In a public hearing before the County Council on Elrich’s bill, many businesses said the county minimum wage would be “devastating” to business, even though Elrich has said exceptions will be made for certain part-time or tip-dependent workers at restaurants.
In October, Berliner said he would not support the bill because of concerns about how it would affect the county’s business competitiveness with Northern Virginia counties and other counties in Maryland.
“I don’t doubt for a moment and I know in my heart that people can not live on a minimum wage in Montgomery County,” Berliner said. “I also believe that this effort to make it regional is an important one, but I would say to Mr. Elrich, at least from where I sit, in terms of Montgomery County’s competitiveness…that we’re looking at Frederick, we’re looking at Howard, we’re looking at Fairfax, we’re looking at Arlington. We’re looking at a whole broad array of jurisdictions with whom we are in competition and we need to understand before we act on this, in my judgement, what impact this will have on our competitiveness.”
