MoCo's Minimum Wage Is Going Up On July 1

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Beginning July 1, one Maryland county will increase its minimum wage.

Hourly workers in Montgomery County will see the minimum wage increase by 50 cents an hour to $17.65 for large employers with 51 or more employees and $16 for those with 11 to 50 employees.

For smaller employers with 10 or fewer employees, it increases from $15 (the state minimum wage floor) to $15.50.

The new rates are based on the change in the consumer price index for all urban wage earners and clerical workers in the Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria area for the previous calendar year, which was 2.9 percent for 2024, according to the county.

Tipped employees (earning more than $30 per month in tips) are guaranteed earnings equaling no less than the Montgomery County minimum wage rate per hour, the county said. Employers must pay at least $4 per hour. This amount plus tips must equal or be greater than the Montgomery County minimum wage rate.

Restaurant employers who use a tip credit must provide employees with a wage statement for each pay period showing the employee’s effective hourly rate of pay, including employer-paid cash wages plus tips for tip credit hours worked for each workweek of the pay period.

“We know from experience that minimum wage increases on July 1 will be good for local workers, businesses and communities," said Gina Schaefer, founder of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, with 13 Ace Hardware stores in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, in a news release from Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. "The cost of living has gone up, and so should wages. The more money that people have, the more they can afford to spend in our stores and others. Fair pay and great customer service has fueled our growth since we opened our first store in 2003. We took our investment in employees to the next level when we became employee-owned in 2021 — strengthening our business for the future.”

The minimum wage in Maryland increased to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2024, as the Fair Wage Act of 2023 took effect, which was signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore.

For companies that employ more than 15 people, this change wasn’t supposed to go into effect until January 1, 2025. However, under the legislation Moore signed, it took effect a year earlier.

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