Tuesday, January 24, 2017

County Executive Vetoes Minimum Wage Increase

The County Executive has vetoed Bill 12-16 that would have gradually increased the County minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. The Council passed the legislation in a 5-4 vote last Tuesday. Although I am in favor of raising the minimum wage nationally or even regionally, I voted against the bill because I worry that raising our minimum wage when surrounding jurisdictions do not raise theirs risks putting us at a competitive disadvantage for job creation. What people want most is a job, and we need to make sure we have an environment that supports job growth. The current minimum wage in Montgomery County is $10.75, and it will go up to $11.50 on July 1.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Not at all. I support Montgomery county be a LEADER on this issue? What if all reasoned as you have here? What people want is not only a job-they need a good job and time to be with their families, and have a human life, not three jobs. They need justice. This is so disappointing and terrible. As a small business I would not pay anyone under &15/hour. Your cover photo says "join the revolution." Time to do so!

Eneshal Miller said...

I agree with you Katie somewhat your a small business owner, if we could surface a list of small businesses who do support the $15 hour wage increase this would benefit everyone workers, unemployment and training preparedness programs ..specifically MoCo if PG County standard is also create jobs seemingly with no contrast between wage increases. If we could get a survey out to study this unfortunately that was never done research study on cause / effect outcomes...WOTC bill passed and approved for employers and agents, consultants tax incentives was passed by Governor Hogan back in 2015