Chairman Ball and members of the County Council:

The League of Women Voters of Howard County supports Howard County CB51-2007 to require minimum wages for employees of County procurement or service contracts. The Legislative requirements do not apply to a contractor who employs fewer than 5 employees or a contractor who will receive less than $100,000 from the County in the 12 month contract period. The legislation does not apply to County contracts with non-profit organizations, the public school system, or contracts for electricity, telephone, cable television, water or sewer or similar services delivered by a regulated public utility.

The League of Women Voters has historically supported legislation that has an impact on basic human needs. The League believes that one of the goals of United States social policy should be the promotion of individual and family self-sufficiency. The League thanks sponsors Calvin Ball and Jen Terrasa for introducing CB 51.

Over 100 jurisdictions have enacted living wage laws connecting wage and or benefit requirements to government contracts. Similar legislation was enacted in Montgomery County in June, 2002 and Prince George's County in June, 2003. The contract threshold in these jurisdictions is $50,000 and for profit contractors with 10 employees or greater. As of July 6, the living wage in Montgomery County was $11.60 per hour.

Baltimore City enacted Living Wage legislation in 1995 and the enabling legislation set a minimum wage of $6.10 per hour for anyone working on a city contract.

Arlington, Virginia has a contract threshold of $100,000 for services provided on County owned or controlled property with an $11.20 per hour living wage. Some of the other jurisdictions with similar contract and minimum wage thresholds are : Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 2001; Tucson, Arizona, September 1999; Dade County, Florida, May 1999, and Dayton, Ohio, July 2003.

Thirty states have enacted minimum wage legislation above the Federal wage limit. A list of those states is attached to our testimony.

Common arguments in opposition to the enactment of minimum wage legislation are that business will be negatively impacted, bidding for contracts will be negatively affected and the market place should dictate costs. These arguments are contrary to current economic analysis of the impact of minimum wage legislation.

The October 25, 2006 study from The Economic Policy Institute, "Minimum Wage Trends" by Liana Fox leads to the following assertion that "over the past decade, state minimum wage increases have boosted the income of low-wage workers without causing negative economic effects." (The full study is attached to our testimony).

In order to rent or purchase affordable housing an individual must qualify with a stream of income able to support the rent or mortgage cost. "The self-sufficiency standard for Maryland 2001", produced by Wider Opportunities for Women and Diana Pearce, University of Washington with updated April, 2006 Consumer Price Indexing for Montgomery County, shows monthly costs for a single adult with an infant and preschool child in 16 jurisdictions in Maryland. The index lists 10 items including housing, childcare, food, transportation, health care, miscellaneous, taxes, earned income tax credit, child care tax credit and child tax credit to arrive at an hourly self-sufficiency wage. The self-sufficiency wage in the 16 jurisdictions ranged from $15.33 in Kent County to $30.84 for Montgomery County. Note that Montgomery County was the only jurisdiction updated with the April, 2006 Consumer Price Index. Howard County based on the 2001.study shows an hourly self-sufficiency wage of $24.76. This translates to a yearly self-sufficiency wage of $52,286.

We are all aware that basic costs have risen since 2001. A September 14, 2006 article in the Washington Post about the updated study conducted by Diana Pearce, Ph.D. with the Wider Opportunities for Women organization indicates basic costs rose at least 26%.

There are facts that need to be assessed regarding CB 51. The fiscal analysis of CB51 did not provide specifics regarding the number of County contracts affected by the legislation, including the number of employees that will be affected. The cost of doing business and potential increased cost is at best a rough estimate of $101,000 in FY2008 and $107,000 in FY2009.

The legislation requires annual reports by the County purchasing agent to both the County Executive and County Council. These reports should provide specific data for future budget calculations of costs.

The County in holding its contractors to a minimum wage must also require the same standard for its employees. Currently there are 10 full time County employees earning less than the legislation's proposed minimum wage. All of them should exceed that minimum during FY 2008.

The League of Women Voters of Howard County urges favorable consideration of CB-51

Grace Kubofcik
Co-president