Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com
MARYLAND — (WMAL) In its first meeting of the new year, the Montgomery County Council voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
After four amendments and a motion to postpone the vote, the measure passed 5 to 4.
Council members Nancy Navarro, Hans Riemer, George Leventhal, Tom Hucker and Marc Elrich voted yes to the bill.
“The more that we can provide for families to become self-sufficient, the less that they have to rely on government services,” Navarro said. “For a county so rich, it seems to me that it is absolutely the best thing to do.”
The other council members Nancy Floreen, Roger Berliner, Sidney Katz and Craig Rice, however, do not think raising the minimum wage is a good idea.
“At the end of the day, what people want our jobs and they want to have an economy that supports those jobs and an opportunity for advancement,” Floreen said. “I don’t think this bill helps that.”
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (photo: Montgomery County)
