Wage and Hour Defense Blog

Over the past five years, ten states and several local jurisdictions across the country have passed wage transparency laws in an effort to address gender and racial wage disparities.  Wage transparency laws may apply to wage range disclosures and promotional opportunities in job advertisements, among current employees and job applicants.  In this changing landscape, employers must be diligent in order to comply with these laws, given their variety with respect to who must receive disclosures, which factual circumstances trigger disclosure requirements, and what information ...

Misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees is a costly mistake.  Among the many issues arising from misclassification is potential liability under federal and state minimum wage and overtime laws.  As the laws continue to change and develop, so do the risks to contracting entities.

Federal Changes

Connecticut appears poised to become the next state to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour, following the trend set by California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and most recently Maryland, in addition to numerous local jurisdictions.  Governor Ed Lamont is expected to sign H.B. 5004, which passed the state’s House and Senate earlier this month.

Under the bill, the state’s current minimum wage of $10.10 will increase to $11 on October 1, 2019. From there, it will increase one dollar every eleven months until it reaches $15 on June 1, 2023. Thereafter, increases ...

On March 22, 2019, we wrote that the two houses of the Maryland General Assembly had agreed on a conference report adopting the Senate’s version of a bill that would increase the state-wide minimum wage to $15 by 2025 or 2026, depending on the size of the company, with two minor changes. We also discussed the bill on March 18, 2019.

As we predicted, Governor Hogan vetoed the bill on March 27, but the General Assembly on March 28, 2019 voted to override the veto. This means the first increase in the state-wide minimum wage will be on January 1, 2020, from $10.10 to $11 for all employers.

On March 18, 2019, we wrote that both houses of the Maryland Assembly had passed bills that would increase the state-wide minimum wage to $15 by 2025 or 2028, depending on the size of the company, but that the House and the Senate still had to work out their differences.

The two chambers acted quickly and on March 20, 2019 (Senate) and March 21, 2019 (House) adopted a conference report that essentially adopted the Senate version (SB 280), with two changes: (1) a two-year acceleration in the timing for companies with fewer than 14 employees, from January 1, 2028 to January 1, 2026, and (2 ...

Montgomery County, Maryland, where the minimum wage already is $11.50, is set to join two states (California and New York), the neighboring District of Columbia and at least six local jurisdictions (Flagstaff (Arizona), Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, San Jose, SeaTac and Seattle) that have enacted legislation increasing the minimum wage for some or all private sector employees to $15 over the next several years.

On November 7, 2017 the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed Bill 28-17, which increases the minimum wage for “large employers” -- those with 51 or ...

 by Brian Steinbach

On May 5, 2014, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a bill increasing the minimum wage to $10.10, in 5 steps by July 1, 2018. This follows recent legislation in suburban Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s counties that will increase county minimum wages to $11.50 in various steps by October 1, 2017. (See our January 20, 2014 blog post.)

Employers in Maryland now face three different local minimum wage requirements, in addition to those imposed by federal law.

Under the new Maryland law, the general state minimum wage, currently the federal ...