Democrats in Maryland’s General Assembly and President Donald Trump don’t agree on much, but there’s at least one exception — eliminating taxes on tips.
On Thursday, Democratic Del. Adrian Boafo, from Prince George’s County, announced his and Baltimore Sen. Cory McCray’s proposal to exempt tips from state income taxes, to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2030, and to require that tipped workers be paid the same minimum wage as everyone else.
Though Maryland’s current minimum wage is $15 an hour, it is only $3.63 an hour for tipped workers.
As proposed by Boafo and McCray, eliminating the tipped minimum wage would be a state constitutional amendment and would require voters’ approval in 2026.
The majority of tipped workers in Maryland are Black workers, according to Saru Jayaraman, the president and co-founder of One Fair Wage, an advocacy group that fights to eliminate the tipped minimum wage. Speaking at a press conference in Annapolis Thursday, Jayaraman said tipped workers experience some of the highest rates of sexual harassment “because they have to put up with so much from customers to get those tips.”
Khadija Sheriff, a 21-year-old student at Towson University, said putting up with mistreatment from customers has been part of her experience while working as a server at several Maryland restaurants. At some of those restaurants, she earned the subminimum wage and relied on tips to make up the difference.
She said she feels like how much she makes depends on the mood of her customers.
“One night, for example, I had a table of regulars who are usually generous, but they were upset over a delay with the kitchen that wasn't my fault, and they left a tiny tip,” Sheriff said. “That small amount was supposed to help cover the difference between my wage and what I need to get by as a college student, but it wasn't even close.”
Seven other states — California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Montana, Alaska and Minnesota — have already eliminated their subminimum wage for tipped workers, and next month, Michigan will be the eighth state.
However, for at least a decade, efforts in the Maryland legislature to create parity for tipped workers have failed. Last year’s bill did not make it out of committee.
Gov. Wes Moore has advocated indexing the state’s minimum wage to inflation. However, he stopped short of endorsing the new proposal when asked about it at a press conference Thursday.
“We're eager to work with the General Assembly to ensure that we can continue having a wage structure that actually honors work and that people are getting fair wages for the work that they are doing,” Moore said.
