Maryland’s minimum wage increased to $15 an hour starting January 1, 2024.
In 1019, the Maryland General Assembly took a serious look at the State’s minimum wage law and passed House Bill 166/Senate Bill 280 (Chs. 10 and 11), legislation to phase in an increase in the State minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by January 1, 2025, with a longer phase-in for employers with 14 or fewer employees.
While that law planned for Maryland to hit $15 in 2025, Governor Wes Moore’s 2023 proposed budget — his first as governor — sought to accelerate Maryland’s minimum wage to $15 per hour as of October 2023 and indexing the wage to inflation in future years. As a compromise, the legislature accelerated the $15 minimum to go into effect on January 1, 2024. The Moore Administration believes that the accelerated increase will affect 163,000 workers and will benefit 120,000 children.
The Baltimore Banner reports:
The increase is the result of legislation sponsored by Gov. Wes Moore earlier this year. Maryland already had been on a schedule to gradually increase the wage to $15 per hour in the next couple years, and Moore’s bill accelerated that wage.
Tipped workers, such as servers and bartenders, will not have a required increase to their base wage. Tipped workers are allowed to be paid as little as $3.63 per hour (half of the federal minimum wage of $7.25), though their total pay and tips must exceed $15 per hour. If they don’t, the employer has to make up the difference.
Workers younger than 18 can be paid 85% of the state minimum wage, which would be $12.75.
The minimum wage went from $13.25 on December 31, 2023, to $15 on January 1, 2024. Montgomery County already had a $15/hour minimum wage. As of July 1, 2023, the County sits at $16.70 for employers with 51 or more employees and $15 for employers with 50 or fewer employees.
According to the Capital Gazette:
Although the federal minimum wage has held at $7.25 per hour since 2009, more than 20 states will have increases next year — New Jersey’s will be $15.13, and California and New York City will see a bump to $16, according to The Associated Press. Virginia’s minimum wage was been $12 an hour since last year, and D.C.’s minimum wage is $17.
Maryland joins six other states and Washington, D.C. to hit $15 an hour, following:
- California – $16.
- Connecticut – $15.69.
- Massachusetts – $15.
- New Jersey – $15.13 (large employers)
- New York – Multiple New York minimum wage rates apply; all are at or over $15.
- Washington – $16.28
- Washington, D.C. – $16.10
