Introduction to Living Wages

Rally Held Aug. 5,2009, Balt. City Hall before Planning Commission Hearing

Download the sign-on letter; letter-size or quarter-page fliers; poll showing 79% support. and video of July 22 City Council hearing (7-mins.; also below).

Baltimore CAN has come together, uniting communities, congregations, workers, youth, and small businesses to demand more from development. We call upon the Mayor, City Council, and other elected officials to stand up for Baltimore and expect more from developers, especially those receiving taxpayer subsidies, by enacting Community Standards legislation that requires:

Community Participation and Transparency
Environmental and Health Safeguards
Housing Affordability Protections
Well-integrated Transportation and Parking
Public Safety
Historic Preservation
Responsible Business Development
Quality Job Creation

News and Links

Background

In 2007, Progressive Maryland lobbied hard and succeeded in passing the nation's first statewide living wage law. The new law shows that Maryland is serious about rewarding work and helping families, and sets the example for more states and Congress to do the same. This law strengthens the ladder for tens of thousands of families living in poverty to climb into the middle class. In the 2006 election, Maryland's voters endorsed just such action.

A man holding a small child wears a sticker reading Progressive Maryland has been fighting to pass legislation to give working families a raise from our very founding. In the last five years, Progressive Maryland has:

The new law requires large for-profit state service contractors to pay their workers enough to make a decent living and feed their families without Food Stamps. In urban counties the rate is a modest $11.30/hour ($23,500/year), and $8.50/hour in rural counties, for full-time work. The principles that living wage laws rely on are the following:

As taxpayers, we have a say in where our money goes: we should be creating living wage, not poverty wage, jobs with our tax dollars.
Any company that receives a contract with a city, county, or the state of Maryland should be providing good, living wage, jobs for Marylanders.
Instead of paying Maryland workers poverty wages and forcing them to rely on state programs in order to make ends meet, we should pay them a wage that reflects the cost of living and the value of their labor.
No one who works full time should have to live in poverty.

PM will continue to fight to raise wages so we have healthy families in Maryland and a permanently expanding middle class.

Also see 'Labor Rights & News'