Montgomery County Council Approves Expansion of Minimum Wage Law

This past November, the Montgomery County Council approved legislation expanding a 2017 minimum wage law to all Montgomery County businesses. This policy, which raises the minimum wage to $15 an hour has now been adjusted to include single-employee businesses, including domestic workers.

The 2017 law identified three categories of business in Montgomery County: large businesses with over 50 employees, mid-size businesses with 11-50 employees, and small businesses with fewer than 11 employees. Different classifications of businesses were given different timelines for wage increases, with the end goal of $15 minimum wages for all workers. However, a loophole existed for single-employee businesses such as domestic workers.

“The employer size category of 10 or fewer actually didn’t include companies with one, and that is substantially household employers,” said former County Council President Hams Riemer in an interview following the vote, as reported by Bethesda Magazine.

This vote comes as a victory to community groups associated with foreign diplomats living in the county who often hire domestic workers. Much of this hiring is done through the State Department, and so often pay rates were assigned below the county’s minimum wage unknowingly. The closure of the single-employee loophole protects workers from similar oversights.

Current remaining exemptions to the $15 minimum wage law include “casual” workers such as babysitters or lawn mowers and those under the age of 19 who work under 20 hours per week.

Article by MoCo Student staff writer Elliot Davey of Wheaton High School.