DC, MontCo and PG Vote to Raise Minimum Wage
Sunday, December 1, 2013(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Three votes
last week kept the metro Washington area on the cutting edge of efforts across
the country to increase the minimum wage, but fell significantly short of
supporters’ hopes. A DC City Council committee last Monday unanimously
approved
a bill that would raise the city’s minimum wage to $11.50 an hour, one of the
nation’s highest, by 2016. On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Council voted to
establish a county minimum wage and raise that hourly rate to $11.50 by 2017;
Prince George's County Council okayed the same increases the next day. However,
Montgomery County – whose full Council was the first to vote -- “missed the
opportunity to make history,” said Metro Washington Council President Jos
Williams.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and Councilmembers Roger Berliner,
George
Leventhal and Hans Riemer “undermined the regional pact” between Montgomery
County, Prince George’s County and the District of Columbia by delaying to
increase to 2017 and stripping out indexing future increases to the CPI.
“This
is not the kind of leadership we expect and deserve in Montgomery County,”
Williams said. "Shame on Ike, George, Roger and Hans.” In contrast,
Williams credited Councilmember Marc Elrich “for real leadership in brokering
the regional agreement and Council President Nancy Navarro and Councilmember
Valerie Ervin for stepping up by co-sponsoring the original bill that would
have changed the lives of millions of workers in this region.” The DC City
Council will take its minimum wage bill up tomorrow and supporters say they
hope
it will accept the recommendation of the committee.