On wages, tipping, greed, and socioeconomic accountability

2026-07-25T12:01:35+00:00

Accountability can mean a lot of things. It can mean fessing up when you’ve made a goof. It can mean saying I’m sorry. And it can also mean not giving yourself a raise unless our teachers and low-income wage workers have been given one first.</p>

Yet over the last four years, Calvin Ball has gotten himself $23,000 in incremental raises, with the next County Executive being expected to be paid roughly $244,500 for 2027, $250,578.00 for 2028, and so on.</p>

Public office needs to stop being a path to personal enrichment</p> </blockquote>
Over the same amount of time, our friends who earn minimum wage have gone from $14/hr (or $12.50/hr if you work for a small business or non-profit) to $16/hr as of July 1st of this year. That’s $25,200 to $32,256 annually, or a $7,056 increase.</p>
For our friends who aren’t yet adults, Howard County has decided they’re less valuable, 15% less valuable to be exact. So our younger friends have gone from $10.63/hr to $13.60/hr. If working full time, that’s $21,430 to $27,417 annually; an increase of less than $6000.</p>

In 2026 the Juvenile pay gap (0.85:1)</small> is smaller than the gender pay gap^{[1]</a></sup> (0.81:1)</small>... but that’s like comparing rotten apples to moldy cheese.</p>
</blockquote>}
For our friends who work for tips, they have the fewest protections. They make just $3.60/hr, which is less per hour than I made as a kid back in 1992.</p>
This table should summarize things.</p>
worker</th> 2022 hourly</th> 2022 salary</th> 2027 hourly</th> 2027 salary</th></tr></thead>

County Exec</td> $109.86</td> $221,475</td> $121.27</td> $244,500</td></tr>
Adult min wage</td> $12.50</td> $25,200</td> $16.00</td> $32,256</td></tr>
<18 min wage</td> $10.63</td> $21,430</td> $13.50</td> $27,417</td></tr>
Tipped wage</td> $3.60</td> $7,257</td> $3.60</td> $7,257</td></tr>
Here we have each as a percentage (%) of minimum wage.</td> </td> </td> </td> </td></tr> </tbody></table>
worker</th> 2022 hourly</th> 2022 % of min</th> 2027 % increase</th> 2027 % of min</th></tr></thead>

County Exec</td> $109.86</td> 878%</td> 10.3%</td> 758%</td></tr>
dult min wage</td> $12.50</td> 100%</td> 28%</td> 100%</td></tr>
<18 min wage</td> $10.63</td> 85%</td> 26.9%</td> 85%</td></tr>
Tipped wage</td> $3.60</td> 28%</td> 0%</td> 22.5%</td></tr>
Ok, so the distance between the County Executive’s salary and someone making minimum wage went from 878% down to 776%, which is less terrible.</td> </td> </td> </td> </td></tr> </tbody></table>
To put this all in perspective, the folks over at MIT calculate a living wage in Howard County to be around $27.30 (see https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/24027</a>)</p>
If we capped the County Executive’s pay at no more than 500% minimum wage, and required any pay increases to keep in step with minimum wage</strong>, we could get things better on track. Small percentage increases mean large real dollars when you’re giving a raise to a high-income person, but 2.5% of $16/hr is $3.20 for an 8-hour shift, before taxes...</p>
That would be $161,280, a $90,000 savings</strong> that could be used to completely cover the salary of another person and give that person the ability to “afford” $2500/mo in housing expenses. Or the $90,000 is almost enough to pay the full-time minimum wage salaries of three people who won’t be able to afford to live in the same county as they work.</p>
A little more on the exceptions to minimum wage</h2> The below excerpts can be found on archive.org here</a>.</p>

A SMALL EMPLOYER is considered:

a small employer as defined under the State minimum wage law</li>
an employer that has tax-exempt status under section 50l(c)(3) of the IRS Code</li>
an employer that provides "Home Health Services" as defined by 42 C.F.R, § 440.70 or "Home or Community-Based Services" as defined by 42 C.F.R. § 440.180, and receives at least 75% of gross revenues through State and Federal Medicaid Programs.</li>
an employer that is defined as a Food Service Facility of any size defined in Section 10.15.03.02 of the Code of Maryland Regulations (“COMAR”).</li> </ul> </li>
A TIPPED EMPLOYEE is an employee who (1) is engaged in an occupation in which the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 each month in tips; (2) has been informed by the employer about the provisions of the law; and (3) has kept all of the tips that the employee received. This does not prohibit the pooling of tips. The tip credit amount that the employer takes shall not exceed the County minimum wage less $3.63 per hour. For more information about the allowable tip credits CLICK HERE</a> (archive.org</a>)</li> </ul> </div>
It's been a known thing for years that in most cases working for a non-profit or NGO is not a way to make the big bucks. We've however written it into law, but I'm not sure how explicitly defining scenarios where workers can legally be paid less benefits these workers.</p>
The scam of tip credits and absurdly low tipped minimum wage.</h3>
Tips can come directly from customers, or as part of a tip pool. With tip credits, an employer can credit a portion of an employee's tips toward the employer obligation to pay minimum wage. So 1. employers don't have to pay a fair wage. 2. Employees get tips because customers are expected to directly pay the employees. If we don't tip, they don't make money. 3. Employers get to take credit for the tips the employee earned, because they employees had to seek tips, because the employers don't pay them.</p>
Having tipped employees is like saying you fed your dog after it was forced to turn over the trash can for scraps, because you forgot to feed your dog. How have we normalized this you ask? Unfortunately that’s the wrong question. The tipped-wage, as well as “at-will” employment both goes back to slavery, half-steps taken during reconstruction, and our long tradition of prioritizing the rights of businesses and the wealthy over individual persons. Advocates for “right to work” laws argue that if workers have the “right to quit” without reason or restrictions, employers should have a “right to fire” without reason or explanation, and of course the terms “at-will” and “right to work” have only ever been propaganda.</p>
Howard County deserves better. You deserve better.</p>

Exceptions:</h3>
THIS SUBTITLE DOES NOT APPLY TO AN INDIVIDUAL:</p>

Under 18 years of age, however, an employer shall pay employees under 18 years of age a wage that is equal to at least 85% of the County Minimum wage established under this section;</li>
Under 16 years of age and employed no more than 20 hours in a week;</li>
Employed as part of training in a special education program for emotionally, mentally, or physically handicapped students under the school systems;</li>
Employed as a hand-harvest laborer and paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation that, in the region of employment, has been customarily and generally recognized as having been paid on that basis if:

The Individual:</li> </ul>

commutes daily from the permanent residence of the individual to the farm where the individual is employed; and;</li>
during the preceding calendar year was employed in agriculture less than 13 weeks; OR</li> </ol>

The Individual:</li> </ul>

is under the age of 17;</li>
is employed on the same farm as a parent of the individual or a person standing in the place of the parent; and</li>
is paid at the same rate that an employee who is at least 17 years old is paid on the same farm.</li> </ol> </li>
Employed in agriculture if, during each quarter of the preceding calendar year, the employer used no more than 500 agricultural worker days;</li>
Is a child, parent, spouse, or other member of the immediate family of the employer;</li>
Is employed in a non-administrative capacity at an organized camp, including a resident or day camp, OR</li>
Is engaged in activities of a charitable, educational, nonprofit, or religious organization if the service is provided gratuitously and there is, in fact, no employer-employee relationship.</li> </ul> </div>

</p>
Footnote(s)</h3>
[1] In 2026, the gender pay gap has widened in several major regions, marking a reversal of previous progress. According to the Census Bureau</a> and Payscale</a>, women working full-time, year-round now earn 81 cents</strong> for every dollar men earn, down</em> from 83 cents in 2023 and 84 cents in 2022. This represents the first consecutive widening of the wage gap since the 1960s.</p>

The right to strike is about dignity

2026-07-24T09:00:00+00:00

We talk about funding schools... because we've been talking about funding schools forever. Other than the grifters who want to privatize everything, nobody is anti-schools. Lots of folks seem to be anti-teachers, however.</p>
I'll spare you from the "think about the children" rhetoric, and the virtue-signaling that implies that if our teachers can't be forced to comply with bad-faith negotiations, they put our children's right to an education at risk. The education students would get as they see their teachers and librarians stand up for themselves and fight for fair treatment and fair pay would be exactly what you think. Those students might want the same things one day, and witnessing the struggle of their teachers just might be inspiring, give them an opportunity to learn about labor rights, history, and human rights... and we can't have that, can we?</p>
For years now, there have been bills introduced in Annapolis that don't make it out of committee. The current statewide efforts to repeal the ban on public employee strikes unfortunately exclude Montgomery and PG counties due to functionally redundant language in their charters. So even if we repealed the statewide ban, those counties would also have to update their charters to give their teachers the rights they deserve.</p>
Currently, my team is exploring the feasibility of a charter amendment in Howard County that would promote our teachers, librarians, and other public staff to being first-class citizens with all of their due bargaining rights.</p>
If we see a path forward, we will lay out and publish the plan as a playbook for not just Howard County, but other counties and municipalities burdened with the same arcane and restrictive labor laws to take a little action and make a little justice in the world.</p>
I've got HCEA and MDEA's back. Think about the children.</p>

Accountability

2026-07-23T20:18:00+00:00

Cap County Executive pay to 5x minimum wage</h2>
If we capped the County Executive’s pay at no more than 500% minimum wage, and required any pay increases to keep in step with minimum wage</strong>, we could get things better on track. Small percentage increases mean large real dollars when you’re giving a raise to a high-income person, but 2.5% of $16/hr is $3.20 for an entire 8-hour shift, before taxes...</p>
Capping the County Executive salary would bring it down to $161,280, a $90,000 savings</strong> that is almost enough to pay the full-time minimum wage salaries of three people... who won’t be able to afford to live here, but this is where I address affordability</a>.</p>
Get rid of the tipped wage, the 85% juvenile pay gap, and small biz / 501(c)3 minimum wage exceptions</h2>
The tipped wage was born out of our country's reluctance to adopt a post-slavery economy.</p>
Treating our kids as cheaper labor is both exploitative, and teaches them they are worth less as people.</p>
The exceptions that allow some organizations to skirt obligations to pay minimum wage doesn't help those organizations, but it does hurt the workforce, and makes hiring more difficult.</p>
A minimum wage you can live on</h2>
A real living wage by 2030.</p>
The folks over at MIT calculate a living wage for Howard County to be around $27.30 (see https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/24027</a>). This is based on data from a few years ago.</p>
My goal is to see workers in Howard County making $30 by 2030. This may be implemented in a tiered structure requiring employers to pay at least $25 per hour if they provide qualifying health benefits, and $30 per hour if they do not.</p>

Community Safety

2026-07-23T17:47:23+00:00

There are two boogeymen that are often used to scare people into acting against their best interests. One is the financial insecurity that mega-retailers leverage by undercutting local businesses to get us to spend money out of our communities and into their hands, and the other are threats to our physical security or of property loss that has allowed the rise of ubiquitous surveillance, low-visibility or unmarked law enforcement vehicles as standard, and putting cops in schools which in a few short years has turned a school system with a fairly representative social, economic, cultural, and racial distribution of suspensions and incident reports, to our school-kids just getting arrested. In 2025, an overwhelming >96% of whom were people of color.</p>
Calling cops in ours schools 'SROs' is propaganda</h2>
It's time to stop normalizing the police presence in our schools. Law enforcement has always been able to respond to a call at a school; having cops permanently stationed in our schools, along with the omnipresent camera systems, harms our kids psychologically; it threatens their creativity and critical thinking when the threat of a punitive response is always looming.</p>

When a community sends a cop with a gun, they get a cop with a gun.</p> </blockquote>
A still from body camera footage of the March 1, 2026, police shooting of 25-year-old Alexander LaMorie.(Courtesy Howard County police)</figcaption></p>
We need visible public safety officers not slick-top and unmarked cars</h2>
Public safety vehicles that are high-visibility and approachable, not menacing or stealthy. Do away with automated enforcement actions that put money in the pockets of the companies that own the cameras and do little to curb errant behavior. Trained community resource personnel who can respond to support, not just crisis intervention, but any call where a cop with a gun is unwarranted.</p>

Education

2026-07-23T15:30:00+00:00

Note: this section will be updated frequently as there's a lot to do to give our kids the best chance at having a future they can be proud of. In the meantime, please join our mailing list below.</em></p>

The Charter Amendments

2026-07-21T15:01:35+00:00

Under Election Law Article, § 7-103(c)(5)(i), the State Board is making available for public comment the text of ballot questions for the 2026 general election. Members of the public may submit comments to info.sbe@maryland.gov</a>. Question drafters will consider only comments received by 5pm Eastern on July 30, 2026.</em></q></p>

Question A</h2>
Charter Amendment</h3>
Gender Neutrality</h4>
The County Charter uses gender-specific words like "he" and "she". The Charter Amendment would replace these types of words with gender-neutral words like "they" and "them".</p>
A vote for the Amendment would make gender-neutral changes to the Charter. A vote against the Amendment would leave gender-specific words unchanged in the Charter.</p>
</ion-icon> FOR the Charter Amendment
</ion-icon> AGAINST the Charter Amendment </div>
I am FOR</strong> this amendment.</p>
My commentary on this amendment will be available soon. - Nater</em></p>

Question B</h2>
Charter Amendment</h3>
Affordable For-Sale Housing Projects</h4>
The County Charter only allows the County to use its capital budget to finance an affordable housing project in its Housing Opportunities Trust Fund if the County owns the project. The Charter Amendment would change this requirement by allowing the County to use its capital budget to finance some or all of an affordable housing project if the project meets certain criteria. The County is not required to own or construct the project, but the Howard County Housing Commission or another entity controlled by the Housing Commission must own the project. The project must only have housing units for sale. The County would repay the bonds for the project over a defined time period, typically 20-30 years, and the affordable for-sale housing units must remain affordable for that period.</p>
A vote for the Charter Amendment would allow the County to use its capital budget to finance these affordable for-sale housing projects. A vote against the Charter Amendment would require these affordable for-sale housing projects to be financed in ways other than the County's capital budget.</p>
</ion-icon> FOR the Charter Amendment
</ion-icon> AGAINST the Charter Amendment </div>
I am AGAINST</strong> this amendment, but probably not for why you think.</p>
My commentary on this amendment will be available soon. - Nater</em></p>

Affordability

2026-07-21T06:20:35+00:00

Whether it's groceries, insurance, or utilities, it costs more just to get by today than it ever has before. Economists like to blame inflation, but the truth is there's no such thing as inflation, it's just been greed the whole time.</p>
Note: this section will be updated frequently as there's a lot to do to make things fair and truly affordable here in HoCo.</em></p>
Let's start off with the term "affordability". It's universal right? Yes, it is, in terms of being subjective</p>
Rent Stabilization</h2>
This isn't rent control, it's modern, and it's used around the world to protect renters from predatory landlords and property management companies.</p>
Tenants will not be able to have their rents raised more than 2.5% year over year. Landlords may raise rent at the annual Baltimore-Columbia-Towson Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) or 2.5%, whichever is lower.</p>
If this year your rent is $2000/mo. next year it can't be higher than $2050/mo.</p>
If you move, that doesn't mean the landlord gets to charge whatever to the next tenant. The rates will be tied to the unit, not your lease.</p>
Expand and enforce consumer protections</h2>
Earlier this year the County Council passed legislation that prohibits surveillance pricing, which was great news for consumers. The catch is, it only applied to grocery stores, which was bad news to consumers.</p>
We need to expand the prohibition of surveillance pricing to include all retailers, not just the folks who sell you bananas and bread.</p>
Self checkout can't be the only option</h2>
Getting customers to be their own cashiers has been a con the whole time. Customers have been taking away the jobs of store employees for a few years now, and not even getting paid to do it.</p>
It can be tremendously convenient to fly throug a self checkout if you're in a rush (who isn't these days?) or just have a few things, but stores need to offer at least the same number of staffed cashiers as available DIY consoles.</p>
Retailers cry that'll be forced to raise prices if they have to go back to actually employing people, but we have all seen that retailers have been raising prices on anything they can as high as they think they can get away with for years. Consumers have a right to not be prayed on or manipulated. We can do something about this.</p>

Transit

2026-07-20T08:20:35+00:00

Note: this section will be updated frequently as there's a lot to do to Howard County a modern and connected community. In the meantime, please join our mailing list below.</em></p>

Property Taxes

2026-07-19T05:20:35+00:00

Note: this section will be updated frequently as there's a lot to do to make things fair and truly affordable here in HoCo. In the meantime, please join our mailing list below.</em></p>

The right to strike is about dignity

Accountability

Community Safety

Education

The Charter Amendments

Question A</h2>

Charter Amendment</h3>

Question B</h2>

Charter Amendment</h3>

Affordability

Transit

Property Taxes

Nater Kane for HoCo Executive

A Democracy that can't be Bought

A Habitat we can Live with

Human Rights Aren't Optional

Working Class Communities that Thrive

Surveillance & Automated Enforcement

On wages, tipping, greed, and socioeconomic accountability

Nater Kane for HoCo Executive

A Democracy that can't be Bought

A Habitat we can Live with

Human Rights Aren't Optional

Working Class Communities that Thrive

Surveillance & Automated Enforcement

On wages, tipping, greed, and socioeconomic accountability

Exceptions:</h3> THIS SUBTITLE DOES NOT APPLY TO AN INDIVIDUAL:</p>

The right to strike is about dignity

Accountability

A minimum wage you can live on</h2> A real living wage by 2030.</p>

Community Safety

Education

The Charter Amendments

Question A</h2>

Charter Amendment</h3>

Question B</h2>

Charter Amendment</h3>

Affordability

Transit

Property Taxes