The Minimum Wage in Maryland

Maryland is a very progressive state with the Progressive Elitists dominating both legislative bodies.  It did just elect a Republican governor, after the last two Democrat governors with the help of the Democrat state legislature enacted 40 straight tax increases, including the tax on rain and one on high income citizens.  The last governor, Martin O'Folley, er.... O'Malley, claims to have done the people of Maryland a favor by mandating that employers will pay a higher minimum wage for their services, if employer's can find a reason to hire them any more at all.

From December 2007 to December 2014, Maryland had a 0.15% increase in the number of jobs in the state even before this state minimum wage was added to the problems of doing business in Maryland.  This wee increase in jobs vastly lagged the population growth.  This was in spite of Maryland doing better than most states in the early years of the Great Recession due to the huge, horrendous increase in federal spending.  Maryland received a much larger fraction of that windfall than did the median state.

Minimum Wage Rates for Employers
$7.25 Until 12/31/14
$8.00 Effective 1/1/15
$8.25 Effective 7/1/15
$8.75 Effective 7/1/16
$9.25 Effective 7/1/17
$10.10 Effective 7/1/18

One of the Ph.D. scientists who works in my laboratory just had jury duty.  He was paid $15 per day.  I am not sure he was in court for exactly 8 hours, but he absolutely could not be at the laboratory for 8 hours.  Effectively, the government paid him $1.875/hour for his services.

Sure, the government would say he was just expected to do his civic duty.  I might respect that argument if the government were acting legitimately to protect every citizen's equal and sovereign rights.  But the governments in Maryland are highly attuned to special interests and rob the majority of the citizens to provide advantages to many special interests and to buy the votes of many low-information and relatively unthinking citizens, the many non-citizens who vote in this state, and the many citizens that vote both in this state and in others.  I absolutely refuse to buy the argument that civic duty to this form of tyrannical government is morally superior to providing materials problem-solving services to companies that are trying to raise the American standard of living with superior goods and services in the private sector.

It is highly hypocritical for Maryland to require private sector businesses to pay a minimum wage of $8.00/hour when it is paying a minimum wage of $1.875/hour.  While my employee will receive his normal pay for those days he was on jury duty, a self-employed person might very well not be able to pay himself for the time he spent on jury duty.  For my laboratory, the loss of our scientist's billable work is a significant loss.  It would help if we could pay him the difference between his usual salary and the amount paid him by the government for that time, but since they paid him so little, making any such correction is more trouble than it is worth.

As usual, we see that Democrat government is a poser without substance at the business of justice.  It cares not the least about interfering with the individual right to earn a living, whether it be to deprive an employer or an employee of that freedom with a minimum wage law or by imposing a duty with far less than what it claims is subsistence pay when it talks to employers.