Montgomery Living Wage Bill, Itês Back! Chances For Passage Better This Time Around
Times have changed and so have the chances of the Montgomery County Council passing new living wage legislation, introduced last week by council member Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg, who has championed the bill for years.
As dealers may recall, the council narrowly defeated, 5-4, a similar wage bill in 1999 following a fierce debate among lawmakers, nonprofit organizations, liberal activists and the business community (including WANADA). Helping defeat that bill was opposition by Council President Steven A. Silverman (D-At large) of Silver Spring and County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who feared that the wage requirement would endanger the newly launched $1 billion revitalization of downtown Silver Spring. But that effort is now well under way, and this time around, both Silverman and Duncan are supporting a revised version of the bill that has been significantly narrowed and intensely negotiated behind closed doors.
Living wage laws have also gained momentum since 1999. According to Andrews, almost 80 local jurisdictions around the country have enacted living wage laws, including Baltimore city ($7.70 an hour) and Alexandria, VA, ($10.21 an hour).
Under the proposed Montgomery County living wage bill, most for-profit county contractors with more than ten employees would be required to pay their employees at least $10.50 an hour, or more than double the federal minimum wage. Government agencies and public utility contractors are exempt from the bill, as well as nonprofits and businesses that receive certain tax credits or economic development aid two groups that were included in the previous legislation and formed a powerful alliance to nix the 1999 bill, according to The Gazette newspaper.
Contractors who offer health insurance would receive credit against the $10.50 wage level, and nonprofit contractors who pay a living wage would not be penalized for those higher costs in bidding on county contracts.
The new living wage bill, which looks likely to be approved, would take effect in July 2003, and could affect as many as 2,000 workers employed under 447 contracts totaling $338 million in county contracts.
Business leaders are still opposed to the bill, however. It sets a dangerous precedent having the local government set wage limits that are twice the national average, and it does not at all help us sell Montgomery County as a good place to do business, says Rich Parsons, president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
Parsons sees the living wage bill as another in a number of measures proposed or taken by the current County Council that will raise the cost of doing business and discourage new businesses, and he promises a more active role by the business community in the upcoming fall elections for council seats. (More on that soon.) He will be testifying to that effect at a public hearing on the bill will be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 26 at the County Council Building in Rockville.
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