The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Maryland Minimum Wage Is Not a Living Wage

Feb 15, 2021

Maryland’s minimum wage went up 75 cents at the end of December, to $11.75 an hour. It’s still nowhere near enough. One major study showed that a single person with no children living in Baltimore would need to earn a dollar and a half more per hour just to pay the basic bills. Someone living closer to Washington, D.C. would need five dollars more per hour—in fact, much more than 15 dollars an hour. More than one in four workers in Maryland earns no more than the basic amount. And the study says raising even one child doubles the bills.