The Maryland’s General Assembly passed a law to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, overriding Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto.
The bill received 96-43 in the House of Delegates, followed by a 32-15 vote in the Senate.
When he vetoed the bill, Hogan said the measure would hurt Maryland’s competitiveness and push small businesses out of the state.
“Small businesses faced with the choice between a $7.25 wage in Virginia or $15 in Maryland will be forced to create jobs in the lower cost location and possibly reduce jobs or eliminate operations in Maryland,” he said. “Making Maryland’s minimum wage more than double that of Virginia could be too much for our economy to bear. How can we place Maryland’s workers at risk and Maryland businesses at so much of a disadvantage?”
But the measure initially passed with enough votes to override Hogan’s veto, so a veto override was expected.
Businesses with 15 or more employees will follow a schedule that reaches $15 in 2025, while smaller companies will have to pay $15 starting in 2026.
Most states have already increased their minimum wage to above the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, and many localities have adopted minimum wages above their state minimum wage. But no state minimums are as high as $15 an hour — yet.
Maryland follows a small number of states to pass bills that will increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour within the next few years: California will reach $15 an hour in 2022, Massachusetts in 2023, New Jersey in 2024 and Illinois in 2025.