The Washington, D.C., city council gave final approval Tuesday to a measure raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2020, and some parts of Maryland may not be far behind. In Montgomery County, Maryland, where the minimum wage is currently on its way to $11.50 just as it had been in Washington, the county council is similarly considering an increase to $15. And in Baltimore, the city council’s labor committee met last week to consider its own $15 minimum wage measure.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser is expected to sign the District’s bill, which also raises the minimum wage for tipped workers from $2.77 to $5 and, after 2020, indexes the minimum wage to inflation. The current proposal in Baltimore would fully eliminate the tipped minimum wage, but that is often a victim of restaurant industry lobbying—the D.C. bill, for instance, originally proposed a $7.50 tipped minimum wage.
While drawing predictable opposition from low-road employers and business lobby groups, the minimum wage increases also had powerful testimony from workers who would be affected.
“I used to work as a baker at a Whole Foods Market in Montgomery County” and struggled to make ends meet with the low- wage job, said Manuel Almeida, speaking in Spanish through a translator. “For the first few years I made less than $15 per hour. This affected me in several ways. I struggled to save up for my children’s education and I struggled to take care of my family. With such a low income, you can imagine how difficult it can be to survive.”
It’s the testimony and activism of workers like Almeida, workers willing to testify publicly, rally, and even strike, that has made such a fast move toward a $15 minimum wage possible. Just a few years ago, Democrats nationally were pushing for $10.10, itself a major advance over the current $7.25 federal minimum wage. Now, cities and even states are putting themselves on the path to $15—while congressional Republicans stand in the way of any increase over the poverty level of $7.25 nationally.