How much is a school custodian's time worth?
When Charles Garrison worked at Baltimore's Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, he had exactly four hours to clean the cafeteria because he wasn't paid any overtime. He cleaned 40-pound tables. He stacked chairs. He mopped juice spills and scraped gum, before giving the floor a thorough washing.
If there was any extra time, he helped clean another part of the school. "It always seems like I'm the only dumb one who finishes fast enough to help somebody else," said the 25-year-old Mr. Garrison, who until recently worked for Miracle Services Co.
For all that, he was paid $4.25 an hour, the federally mandated minimum wage.
That wage -- paid to hundreds of workers who keep Baltimore's (( schools clean, lawns manicured and buildings secure -- has become an issue with implications for next year's mayoral race.
Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has until Thursday to decide whether he will veto a measure mandating a $6.10 minimum wage for all service workers employed by contractors at a city facility.
The measure, approved by the City Council Oct. 31, was sponsored by council president Mary Pat Clarke, who has announced she will run against the mayor next year. And the bill is backed by Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), which includes many prominent African-American ministers who have always supported Mr. Schmoke in elections.
Tom McGowan, president of Broadway Services Inc., which has contracts to clean several public schools, believes many companies will find ways to absorb the increased wages so they can remain competitive when bidding for city contracts. But Mr. Schmoke says it is more likely that contractors will pass along their increased costs to the city. He doesn't want to commit to a specific wage increase; he fears the city won't have the money to pay for it.
"We now face a new Congress that could do things on urban funding that we never contemplated, and probably negatively," he said, adding that estimates show the measure would cost the city more than $2.5 million.
The mayor favors a compromise that would set a goal to raise service workers' hourly pay to $7.70 within four years.
The five-member city Board of Estimates, which is controlled by the mayor and his appointees, would determine how much the initial raise should be.
But BUILD spokeswoman Kathleen O'Toole said proponents fear that goal-oriented legislation, which does not specify an initial pay increase, might be ignored when officials begin writing new city budgets.
Current law, she noted, requires that prevailing minimum wages be set each year for construction workers employed by private companies on city projects. Those wages vary according to the job involved -- for example, an apprentice trainee with no experience receives more than $5 an hour.
The wages are designed to help ensure that contractors offer pay that will attract competent construction workers.
"The construction workers' prevailing wage does not become a captive of the budget process," Ms. O'Toole said. "Why should low-paid African-American workers be treated differently?"
Raising the minimum wage for service workers hired by city contractors would be a tremendous victory for BUILD, which has had little success lobbying businesses to do the same.
It's been more than a year since BUILD began pushing for a "social compact" that calls for hotels and restaurants to pay all their employees a "living wage."
Mr. McGowan, of Broadway Services, said the city's measure could start a domino effect. Companies that don't have city contracts might have to boost wages to attract the best workers, he predicted.
Blacka Wright says that's why she and other workers not directly affected by the city's wage proposal are watching closely to see whether Mr. Schmoke vetoes it.
Ms. Wright, 28, a maid at the Biltmore Suites on West Madison Street, already makes $6.25 an hour. But she never works more than 20 hours a week, and tries to supplement her income as a security guard.
"I realize that just because I have this job now doesn't mean I will never have to work for $4.25 an hour again," she said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison, who hasn't worked much since hurting his wrist lifting cafeteria tables in September, says politics is the last thing on his mind when he considers the mayor's dilemma. He has more personal concerns.
"I've got a child on the way, the baby's due in May," he said. "We talk about marriage, but only if I can get a good job that pays."