The minimum wage in Maryland is on the rise.
The second increase in the state's base hourly rate went into effect on Wednesday, six months after the first pay hike from $7.25 to $8 went into effect on Jan. 1.
Minimum wage workers will earn $8.25 an hour for the next year. The Maryland General Assembly voted to raise the minimum wage in increments when it passed the bill in 2014 – the rate will now rise on an annual basis for the next three years, to $8.75 an hour next July and $9.25 an hour in July 2017, before reaching $10.10 an hour in July 2018.
The legislation generated a flurry of debate before it was passed a year and a half ago, with some business owners arguing their companies would suffer if they had to raise minimum wage across the board, while others said it was the right thing to do.
Advocates marked the raise this week.
"This increase is another positive step for Maryland's working families," Charly Carter, executive director of Maryland Working Families, said in a statement Monday.
Holly Sklar, CEO of Business For a Fair Minimum Wage, a coalition of business owners who support the raise, predicted the state's stores and restaurants will benefit from increased consumer spending.
"Most businesses are very dependent on consumer spending, and consumer spending is very dependent on people's wages," she said. "Workers are also consumers, and so when the minimum wage goes up, it increases consumer spending, which in turn benefits businesses in the form of increased sales."
Brian England, the owner of Columbia-based British American Auto Care, is part of the Business For a Fair Minimum Wage coalition.
In a statement Tuesday, he said his business owed its success to "paying our employees a fair wage.
"Employers who pay inadequate wages now will see that a higher minimum wage will reduce high turnover and improve worker productivity and customer service," England said. "Money from minimum wage increases goes straight back into businesses and the community."
Others said the hike would take a toll on their operations.
Pete Mangione, general manager of the Turf Valley resort in Ellicott City, said his minimum wage employees worked a total of 67,000 hours last year.
"When it went up a dollar it cost my company $67,000 to our bottom line," he said, which will translate into reduced hours for staff and fewer new hires to balance the books. "Everyone thinks you can just raise prices, but ... it's very competitive out there. ... It doesn't work that way."
Still, Mangione said, he understands that minimum wage isn't enough to support a family.
"I don't want to come across as someone trying to pull down wages," he said, but "this business operates on smaller margins [and] labor's our biggest expense." According to Mangione, all of the minimum wage workers at Turf Valley are between the ages of 15 and 23 – "certainly no heads of households for the positions here."
Howard County Chamber of Commerce CEO Leonardo McClarty said the members of his group "understand the rationale behind the minimum wage," but "from a business side of things, I can't say that a lot of them are terribly happy or excited about the increase, because it is an increase on their expenses."
Since the first minimum wage increase in January, "they're making adjustments," he said. "I think, if anything, one of the things that at least made [the raise] somewhat palatable was the fact that it was at least phased in over a period of time."
The 2014 law was the first time the minimum wage has been increased for the entire state since 2009. Meanwhile, in neighboring Prince George's and Montgomery counties, local lawmakers have passed their own legislation to raise the minimum wage to $11.50 by 2017. Currently, the minimum wage for those two counties is $8.40; it will rise to $9.55 on Oct. 1.
Though there have been efforts in recent years to increase wages nationwide, the federal minimum wage remains set at $7.25.