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The Minimum Wage Debate

Zhu/Flickr via Creative Commons

In a few hours, the Baltimore City Council is to vote on whether or not to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022. The city currently follows the state minimum wage of $8.75 an hour. The proposal says small businesses--with fewer than 25 employees or less than a half a million dollars in gross annual income-- would not have to pay the higher minimum. Proponents say raising the basement wage is crucial to attacking poverty, in a city where one out of four residents is below the poverty line. They cite data showing the proposal would boost the incomes of more than one-fourth of workers in the city. Business advocates argue the proposal would backfire, killing jobs by pushing some businesses to move out of the city. Our guests: Ricarra Jones, political organizer with SEIU 1199, and Cailey Locklair Tolle, president of the Maryland Retailers Association. 

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Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Maureen Harvie is Senior Supervising Producer for On the Record. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and joined WYPR in 2014 as an intern for the newsroom. Whether coordinating live election night coverage, capturing the sounds of a roller derby scrimmage, interviewing veterans, or booking local authors, she is always on the lookout for the next story.