WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON - About 64,000 workers in Maryland will get a pay raise tomorrow when the federal minimum wage bumps up to $6.55 an hour - the first federal increase to affect the state in a dozen years.
For those working 40 hours a week at the state minimum of $6.15, the extra 40 cents an hour will amount to an additional $832 over the next 12 months. Another increase, scheduled to take effect next year, will add $1,456 a year.
To Jason Perkins-Cohen, executive director of the Job Opportunities Task Force in Baltimore, it's "a small increase."
"It's not going to dramatically change people's lives," he said. "But, again, every little bit helps. It can be the difference between food on the table, or keeping the lights on."
House Democratic Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who championed the increase in Congress, said the wage increase "couldn't come at a more critical time for workers or the economy."
"Rising costs of food, gasoline and health care are pinching the budget of Maryland's working families," the Southern Maryland congressman said. "This increase, followed by another raise next year, will help meet the immediate economic challenges facing working families as well as provide an additional boost to help strengthen the overall economy."
But Melvin Thompson, vice president of government relations for the Maryland Restaurant Association, says the increase arrives "at the worst possible time."
"Right now we're dealing with huge increases in the cost of energy," he said. "We have some declines in the number of customers that are patronizing our restaurants because they're all tightening their belts. And at the same time we're dealing with significant increases in food costs because of the diversions of much of our corn crop to ethanol production."
Elaine Ezell says she sees both sides. The co-owner of AAA Antiques Mall in Laurel has had employees questioning whether they could afford to continue driving to work. She says the same challenges that fuel and other costs pose to her workers also make it more expensive for her to do business.
"I fully understand where the people are coming from, I really do, that they need more money to buy necessities," said Ezell. "But at the same time, all these Ma and Pa stores like ours can't afford to keep having to raise our wages."
Ezell and other Maryland employers last had to increase their wages in February 2006, when the General Assembly raised the minimum from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour.
