The Efficacy of a Living Wage Increase in Baltimore City and Howard County a Comparative Study

Abstract

On May 5, 2014 Governor Martin O’ Malley signed into law legislation to raise the minimum in the State of Maryland to $10.10 an hour. The manner in which Baltimore City and Howard County confront, adapt to or take advantage of the new law can only be understood within the context of their governmental structure of home rule. The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibilities that the recent minimum wage offers the jurisdictions of Howard County and Baltimore City in the context of their home rule charters and the parameters set on the efficacy of these charters under Maryland law. In understanding this interface I will examine home rule in the two jurisdictions in the form of what Frug called a “Home Rule” initiative with the collateral benefit of “Home Rule Immunity” protecting the local entities from the interference of the legislature in Annapolis, Maryland. It is my thesis that to understand the delegation and the exercise of home rule in Maryland in any jurisdiction one must understand what home rule is. Its parameters with regard to preemption and by definition how that affects the decisions made in the two jurisdictions covered. Home rule does not occur in a vacuum. The history of a jurisdiction, its economic and political structures must all be considered in understanding its decision making process first and then used as the lens through which to compare it to another local community.