Baltimore mayor vetoes $15/hour minimum wage

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. | Fri Mar 24, 2017 | 5:19pm EDT

Baltimore mayor vetoes $15/hour minimum wage

By Ian Simpson

Baltimore's mayor said on Friday she would veto legislation that would nearly double the Maryland city's minimum wage to $15 an hour in a setback for advocates of a "living wage" for restaurant workers and other low-wage earners.

The legislation raising the minimum wage from $8.75 an hour would have put the city at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring cities and suburban counties, Mayor Catherine Pugh said.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would have linked Baltimore, a port city that once had a vibrant steelmaking industry, to efforts across the United States to boost the standard of living of many low-wage service workers.

A fourth of the residents of Maryland's biggest city live below the federal poverty level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-maryland-minimumwage-idUSKBN16V2TC

[joeybee12]

1. She needs to go. Knr

[Wellstone ruled]

2. The Mayor just shot herself in the foot.

Realize Baltimore has a quarter of it's population in deep poverty,and for a Mayor to veto a major step out of Poverty is unconscionable. Every major City that has advanced the minimum wage has been a winner and every Mayor who vetoed these measures are struggling and are losing the war on poverty.

[elleng]

3. I suppose it's a 'major step out of poverty' if we Marylanders,

living elsewhere than Baltimore, continue to and increase our patronage. I'm not sure, but my daughter+ did visit the aquarium last week.