Key MontCo Committee Sends $11.50 Minimum Wage Bill to County Council
Thursday, November 21, 2013
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)A regional minimum wage of $11.50 an
hour took a giant step closer to reality
Thursday when Montgomery County
Council’s Health and Human Services (HHS)
Committee voted out Bill 27-13, which would
establish a County minimum wage. Similar
bills are being debated in both the Prince
George's County Council and District of
Columbia City Council. A vote on Bill 27-13 is
set for next Tuesday and at a midday rally of
labor, women and community supporters on the
County Council's steps Thursday, bill sponsor
Marc Elrich said he has the five votes needed
for passage. "This is an important moment for
Montgomery County," Elrich said, remembering
how "I used to watch kids come in hungry" when
he was a teacher. "We shouldn't be asking
people to contribute cans of food in a
school...we need to address this issue with
(higher) wages." National Organization for
Women President Terry O'Neill -- a Montgomery
County resident -- noted that “two-thirds of
minimum wage workers are women, but minimum
wage workers don’t get a pension, don’t
have 401K’s, don’t have health care paid
for by their employers,” yet working
women’s income “is crucial to Montgomery
County families,” she said. Co-sponsors Nancy
Navarro and Valerie Ervin also spoke strongly
in favor of increasing the minimum wage at the
rally, as did George Leventhal, who pledged his
support for the bill. "This is a good start,"
said MCGEO/UFCW 1994 president Gino Renne. "If
people don't have money, the economy will never
grow."
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report/photo by Chris Garlock