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Vance questions authority of US judges to challenge Trump; UAW contract negotiations at VW focus on higher wages, health care, retirement; Report highlights how Georgia can unlock rural infrastructure, broadband; Leftover fish parts could help keep industrial fishing waste low.

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The head of the new White House Faith Office draws scrutiny, Trump moves to fire the Federal Elections Commission chair, and a North Carolina judge won't toss tens of thousands of ballots in a state Supreme Court race.

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New report measures benefits of MD’s 2024 minimum wage increase

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Monday, July 29, 2024   

Many Maryland workers are benefiting from the minimum wage increase that went into effect at the beginning of this year.
But a new report from Oxfam America suggests the increase didn't go far enough.

Over 500,000 Maryland workers make less than $17 an hour. That's almost 17% of the population - and disproportionately women, single parents and people of color.

But Kaitlyn Henderson, senior researcher at Oxfam America, said Maryland is doing well compared to its neighbor, West Virginia - where 30% of workers make less than $17 an hour.

"The fact that people in neighboring West Virginia can have the exact same job as someone in Maryland but earn significantly less," said Henderson, "and have a really hard time paying for the cost of living - even the most basic components of the cost of living - doesn't seem to make a lot of sense."

Henderson emphasized that not everyone can move to states like Maryland that have made strides to increase their minimum wage. She said she backs the idea of national legislation to increase wages.

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

In Maryland, the number of workers earning less than $17 an hour increases quickly when race, gender or family composition are factored in.

For women, the number is 19.6%. For people of color, it's 29.6%. And almost 34% of single parents in Maryland make less than $17 an hour.

With this data, Henderson said Oxfam is working to fight the cliches that exist around low- and minimum-wage workers.

"There is such a common misconception that when we talk about low-wage workers, or even when we talk about minimum-wage workers," said Henderson, "that these are high school students that are working an after-school job."

In reality, she says, fewer than 13% of low-wage workers in Maryland are teenagers.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator says for Maryland, one adult with no children needs a wage of almost $25 an hour to comfortably live in the state.

Two adults, both working, with two children, need to each make close to $29 an hour.




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