First minimum wage hike goes into effect Wednesday

U.S.  Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett make  guacamole Aug. 7 at Boloco BethesdaThe first of four minimum wage hikes in Montgomery County will go into effect on Wednesday.

In November 2013, the County Council passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $11.50 per hour by October 2017 in a series of wage raises that would go into effect each October.

The first wage raise — from the state minimum $7.25 per hour to $8.40 per hour — will go into effect Wednesday. The minimum wage will increase to $9.55 per hour on Oct. 1, 2015, to $10.75 per hour on Oct. 1, 2016 and finally to $11.50 per hour in 2017.

To mark the occasion, County Executive Isiah Leggett, a number of councilmembers, minimum wage workers and a group of labor leaders will gather at the National Labor College in Silver Spring.

At the urging of Councilmember Marc Elrich, the county joined Prince George’s County and D.C., which passed the same minimum wage legislation.

“I believe that a higher minimum wage for Montgomery County is justified, given the higher cost of living in the County as compared to the rest of the State,” Leggett said in a prepared media release.

Leggett joined Gov. Martin O’Malley and U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez last month at the Boloco burrito location in Bethesda to tout a higher national minimum wage. Earlier this year, O’Malley signed a bill to raise the minimum wage elsewhere in the state of Maryland to $10.10 by 2018.

The county says this year’s increase will mean about $2,400 in gross pay for those who now work 40-hour weeks at the minimum wage. Those likely to see the most benefit are food service workers, housekeepers and cashiers.

The law applies to work for all private sector employees with at least two employees working in Montgomery County.

According to an analysis done by the University of Maryland, there are 77,000 workers in the county who earn less than $12 an hour. The family “self-sufficiency standard” for one adult and one preschool-aged child in the county is $64,606.

The state’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will be responsible for enforcing the county’s minimum wage law. Those who wish to get more information or file a complaint about a violation of the law should contact the DLLR.

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