Maryland lawmakers have announced a major legislative effort to raise Maryland’s minimum wage to $20 per hour by 2030, eliminate subminimum wages for tipped workers, and exempt tips from state income taxation.
Del. Adrian Boafo and State Sen. Cory McCray joined labor leaders, tipped workers, and fair wage advocates at a press conference to announce the proposal, which also includes offering tax breaks for small businesses and would require transparency on service fees.
The Maryland lawmakers also unveiled new polling from Fred Yang of Hart Research Associates showing widespread support for increasing the minimum wage and the other proposals, and the urgency of enacting the reforms given how high the cost of living is in Maryland.
The poll showed that 72% of likely voters and 81% of oversampled unlikely voters supported raising the minimum wage to $20 per hour and eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped workers. It also showed that 78% of voters cite the increasing cost of living as the reason for supporting the measure. 34% of likely voters and 45% of oversampled unlikely voters said the issue, if on the ballot, would make them more excited to vote in 2026.
These voters span key demographics, including women, people of color, and young voters, demonstrating a strong cross-section of voters backing the reforms.
“This polling demonstrates a clear mandate from Maryland voters to tackle wage inequity and deliver real solutions for working families,” Boafo said. “This legislation is not just about raising wages; it’s about addressing economic dignity and ensuring that all Marylanders can thrive.”
“This legislation offers the right mix of pro-worker policies and small business protections to ensure that no one is left behind,” McCray said. “Marylanders deserve leadership that delivers real solutions to address wage inequity and affordability challenges.”
The current minimum wage in Maryland is $15 per hour. The proposed legislation would gradually raise it to $20 per hour by 2030.
The proposal would phase out two-tier wage structures so that tipped workers would earn the full minimum wage in addition to tips, and tips would not be taxed. Restaurants and small businesses would receive tax credits to help them transition to the higher cost of increased wages.
Finally, businesses would be required to show how service fees are distributed.
“This isn’t just about taxes on tips, said Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage. “It’s about ensuring that tipped workers—disproportionately women and people of color—can earn a fair wage with tips on top. The National Restaurant Association’s fearmongering and misinformation can’t obscure the truth: when workers earn fairly, businesses thrive, and communities prosper.”
If the reforms are approved by the legislature, the amendment will appear on the November 2026 ballot in the form of a Constitutional Amendment, giving Maryland voters the chance to secure equal minimum wage for all workers in the state’s Constitution.
As usual, law makers have the situation totally bass ackwards!
The root cause of the situation is “high the cost of living is in Maryland,”
not a low minimum wage.
CEO Magazine just recently came out with their latest survey for the 2024 best & worst states for business. So, going into 2025, not only does Maryland have:
the 5th highest gas tax in the nation, which is automatically increased via CPI, and not very business friendly;
the 5th highest minimum wage in the nation, which is not very business friendly, but justified as Maryland is …
the 5th highest cost-of-living state in the nation, which is also not very business friendly;
but Maryland is CEO Magazine’s 35th worst state for business.
This is not the first time Maryland has ranked poorly in a ‘best & worst states for business’ ranking, similar rankings have been published by Forbes, CNBC and Wallet-Hub.
Business owners and decision making managers read this. They are knowledgeable and have spread sheets full of other decision making data and metrics; like the cost of land, construction, permits, and the permitting process; the cost of doing business, like corporate taxes, LABOR, overhead, G&A expenses, which impacts their state viability check-off list, and ultimately their decisions on where to move a business, expand a business, start a business. We know the private industry sector has been stagnant in MD for some time. This latest ranking does not, obviously, help Maryland’s situation. Nor will increasing the min. wage
CEO Magazine’s ranking of the best-to-worst states in our Econ Dev region:
5th – North Carolina*
10th – South Carolina*
12th – Virginia
15th – Delaware
31st – Pennsylvania
34th – West Virginia
35th – Maryland
47th – New Jersey
[*I include NC & SC because of their $7.25 minimum wage, which is justified given their cost of living. NC & SC are Econ Dev magnets and not that far away.]
CEO Magazine’s ranking of the best-to-worst states along the I-95 corridor from Maine to Florida:
2nd – Florida
5th – North Carolina
7th – Georgia
10th – South Carolina
12th – Virginia
15th – Delaware
24th – New Hampshire
31st – Pennsylvania
33rd – Maine
35th – Maryland
36th – Rhode Island
42nd – Connecticut
45th – Massachusetts
47th – New Jersey
49th – New York
If you were thinking about moving your business to, expanding your business to, or starting a new business on the Delmarva Peninsula, where I live, where would you put it?
Let’s expand that to thinking about moving your business to, expanding your business to, or starting a new business in the greater Mid-Atlantic region, where would you put it?
Let’s expand that even further to thinking about moving your business, expanding your business, or starting a new business along the I-95 corridor, where would you put it?
Applying common sense and logic to the data, and with an acute sense for the obvious, Maryland would not make it to your short list of states to be considered.
One can only hope the 2025 General Assembly does not dig the hole Maryland is in any deeper with legislation like this, which is not going to entice corporations to move here, expand here, start new here.