Prometheus 6

Approval Expected For 'Living Wage' Bill
Md. House Considers Measure to Raise Pay Of Contract Employees
By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 6, 2007; B01

Maryland would become the first state in the nation to mandate that state contractors pay employees a "living wage" under a bill moving briskly toward passage in the House of Delegates yesterday.

The legislation would require that at least $11.30 an hour be paid for work on state contracts in Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties and in Baltimore. In other, more rural, counties, where jobs are less plentiful, the floor would be set at $8.50 an hour, still significantly higher than the state's minimum wage of $6.15.