By Ally Schweitzer
WAMU 88.5, March 14, 2019

Maryland’s Senate passed a bill Thursday that gradually increases the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour ... though it establishes a slower timeline for employers with 14 or fewer workers. Next the bill moves to the House of Delegates, where legislators recently passed a version of the legislation without a different timeline for smaller employers. If delegates concur with the Senate bill, it will head to Gov. Larry Hogan for him to sign, veto or let become law without his signature. ...

Chambers of commerce on the state...

Op-Ed By Ned Atwater, Owner, Atwater's
... We’ve grown to six restaurant/bakeries, a catering team and a small working farm ... We support raising Maryland’s minimum wage to $15 ...

By Andrew Buerger
Baltimore Sun, Letter to the Editor, March 12, 2019

As a business owner, I’m looking forward to Maryland lawmakers improving our economic climate by raising the minimum wage to $15 (“Maryland House of Delegates approves bill to raise state's hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2025,” Mar. 1). It will be a win-win-win for workers, businesses and customers.

When you invest in your employees, they invest more in your customers. Happy customers lead to a healthier bottom line. Since our founding in 2010, this approach has helped us grow our product distribution from great...

By Ally Schweitzer
WAMU 88.5, March 11, 2019

One of the fiercest debates in Maryland’s General Assembly this year has revolved around how much workers should be paid to care for senior citizens, serve food and perform other tasks essential to the region’s economy and quality of life.

Business owners represented by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce have rallied against a pair of bills that would gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to $15, saying higher pay would harm small businesses and send jobs to nearby lower-wage states. But they’re countered by other business owners who...

By William J. Ford
Washington Informer, March 9, 2019

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan sent a letter to legislature leadership Friday offering a “compromise” to the ongoing proposal to gradually increase the state’s minimum hourly wage to $15, which the majority Democratic House approved last week. According to the letter addressed to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Michael Busch, the minimum wage would increase to $12.10 by 2022. ...

Several business leaders and advocate groups are pleased lawmakers agreed to the gradual rise to $15 an hour, but want it done...

By Holden Wilen
Baltimore Business Journal, March 7, 2019

A Senate committee advanced a bill that would raise Maryland's minimum wage to $15 per hour after ... The latest version of the bill would slow down incremental increases in the minimum wage so it does not reach $15 for businesses with 14 or fewer employees until 2028. The original bill would have increased the minimum wage for all business to $15 by 2023. ...

Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business For a Fair Minimum Wage, said the committee should not have lengthened the timeline for businesses with fewer than 15 employees. [More than] Three out of four businesses will be on the longer timeline, she said.

Op-Ed By Brian England, Owner, BA Auto Care
... What we’ve paid in higher compensation, we have more than reaped in long-term loyalty, low turnover, high numbers of return customers and referrals, and consistent growth. ...

By William J. Ford
Washington Informer, Mar 3, 2019

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland inched closer to gradually increasing the state’s minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2025. The House of Delegates voted 96-44 Friday for the bill, which now goes to the Senate. ...

The state’s current minimum hourly wage stands at $10.10. Under the legislation approved Friday, it would increase to $11 by January 2020, then by 75 cents every year and finally by $1 to $15 by January 2025.

Several business leader and advocate groups are pleased with the House vote, but said it didn’t...

By Arelis R. Hernandez
Washington Post, Feb 27, 2019

The Maryland House of Delegates gave initial approval Wed­nesday to legislation requiring a $15 minimum wage, a priority for progressive Democrats that failed to advance to the House floor in previous years. ...

Other business leaders say they favor a higher wage, believing that it can reduce turnover and boost worker productivity.

“A low-wage model makes it harder to hire and retain employees when they can go elsewhere and make more,” said Alissa ­Barron-Menza, vice president of the group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. “It...

By Luke Darby
GQ, Feb 26, 2019

Even in the nicest, friendliest of times, Twitter is an angry place. ...

In this environment, brands are struggling to figure out exactly what their voice and messaging should be, which is how we've ended up with woke Steak-umms and clinically depressed Sunny D. But all of them could take a lesson from a surprisingly reasonable, straightforward, and fully accurate soap.

The Twitter account for Dr. Bronner's...has been tweeting calls to raise the federal minimum wage for almost five years now. Over the past weekend, they did so once again with...

By Teresa Kay Albertson
Des Moines Register, Feb 25, 2019

The owner of an Iowa artisan salami company testified before the U.S. Congress this month in support of raising the national minimum wage to $15 per hour. 

Kathy Eckhouse of La Quercia told members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor that workers like the 60 people at her Norwalk cured meats facility deserve to make living wage. 

“We really believe people need to make enough money to live a comfortable life,” she said last week back home in Iowa. 

Eckhouse was invited to Washington, D.C., to...

By Danielle E. Gaines
Maryland Matters, Feb 22, 2019. Also WTOP

As lawmakers consider whether to adopt a $15 minimum wage, some are also asking whether that figure is needed everywhere in Maryland. ...

But supporters of a statewide “Clean 15” bill – without carve-outs for certain industries or regions – said such logic was flawed.

“A state minimum wage that sets lower rates for certain regions would incentivize workers to leave rural communities to seek higher paying jobs in urban areas, making it harder for our rural businesses to hire and retain employees,” said Alissa Barron-Menza...

By Ally Schweitzer
WAMU 88.5, Feb 22, 2019

The debate over Maryland’s minimum wage continued in a Senate committee hearing Thursday, with business owners mounting dueling arguments for and against a proposal that would raise the wage to $15 statewide.

Maryland’s minimum wage is currently $10.10, except in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, where it’s $12 and $11.50, respectively. The “Fight for $15” bill, introduced by Democrats from Baltimore and Prince George’s County, would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2023. ...

Representatives from Vigilante Coffee and a local string of Ace Hardware stores...

By Lowell Melser
WBAL TV NBC, Feb 21, 2019

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The minimum wage fight has made its way to Annapolis....

People on both sides packed Thursday's hearing to plead their cases to lawmakers.

Brian England, who owns an auto repair company at which all 16 of his employees make more than minimum wage, supports the bill, saying it will be better for the economy.

"They have to choose between tires or a battery because they don't have enough money to live on and they're doing two or three jobs. So, if you raise that...

By Sara Swann
Salisbury Daily Times for Delmarva Now, Feb 21, 2019

... Democratic lawmakers in Maryland are pushing for a landmark minimum wage increase to $15 an hour by 2023. ... The reason for this latest push for a higher minimum wage, advocates say, is because $10.10 per hour doesn't go far enough to cover living expenses.

Bringing the rate up to $15 an hour would ... allow for additional spending, which would strengthen the economy, said Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.

"We want to see a minimum wage...