RadioOnFire.com - The Baltimore City Council on Monday voted in a veto-proof majority for a bill that would raise the city's minimum wage to $15 by 2023.
The vote was 11-3. Under the bill there would be gradual increases in the minimum wage starting in 2019. Until then, the city would be tied to the state minimum wage, now $8.75 an hour, but will rise to $9.25 an hour this July, and $10.10 an hour in July 2018. The city minimum wage will then rise to $11.25 the following year, with $1.25 an hour increases until it reaches the $15 level.
Once the minimum wage hits $15, it will be increased by the city Wage Commission based on inflation.
Workers under 21 would be exempt from the higher minimum wage. City Councilmen Leon Pinkett, Yitzy Schleifer and Eric Costello voted against the measure.
Mayor Catherine Pugh hasn't said yet if she'll sign the measure, saying it would affect the city's ability to pay major expenses like federally-mandated police reforms.
"What a minimum wage will do for just my agencies, 800 people, I have to look at this from a total perspective of what's going to be best for Baltimore," Pugh told WBAL last week. "As I look at it right now, Baltimore needs to be in line with the rest of the state, so I'm looking at it."
Source: WBAL
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