Following approval of the Living Wage bill (HB 430) by the House of Delegates Friday on a vote of 88-50, the Senate Finance Committee voted 7 to 4 Saturday morning to approve the bill with amendments. Favoring the bill were Senators Della, Exum, Garagiola, Kelley, Klausmeier, Middleton, and Pugh. Opposing the bill were Senators Astle, Edwards, Kittleman, and Pipkin. We expect the bill to be on the Senate floor for second reading Monday morning.

The amendments adopted by the Committee had been requested by the MD Chamber and NFIB and made the following changes to the bill:

• Exempt from the bill an employer with 10 or fewer employees that has a contract of less than $500,000
• Delete superfluous language referencing the Prevailing Wage law
• Require the Commissioner of Labor and Industry to assess every 5 years the appropriateness of the measures used to adjust wage rates and the appropriateness of the tier 1 ($11.30/hr.) and tier 2 ($8.50/hr.) county designations
• Delete unclear language referencing an employee’s right of free speech and association
• Delete criminal sanctions of 1 year in jail for certain employer violations

Both the MD Chamber and NFIB remain opposed to the bill.