Accountability

Cap County Executive pay to 5x minimum wage

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, 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...

Capping the County Executive salary would bring it down to $161,280, a $90,000 savings 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.

Get rid of the tipped wage, the 85% juvenile pay gap, and small biz / 501(c)3 minimum wage exceptions

The tipped wage was born out of our country's reluctance to adopt a post-slavery economy.

Treating our kids as cheaper labor is both exploitative, and teaches them they are worth less as people.

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.

A minimum wage you can live on

A real living wage by 2030.

The folks over at MIT calculate a living wage for Howard County to be around $27.30 (see https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/24027). This is based on data from a few years ago.

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.