Leading Practices

Leading Practices

• Maryland implemented a living wage requirement for state service contracts and rolled out a detailed Frequently Asked Questions Guide that provides detailed guidance on how jurisdictions should incorporate living wage in their procurement processes to support their subrecipients, contractors and vendors. The policy states that, effective 12:01 a.m. on September 28, 2022, living wage rates will be adjusted to $15.13 per hour in tier 1 areas (Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties) and $11.36 in tier 2 areas (any county in the state not included in the tier 1 areas), depending on the location where the services are being performed or on the location benefiting from the work.

• The workforce board implemented self-sufficiency wage requirements in its Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act on-the-job training contracts so that work-based learning activities would involve building worker skills and establishing pathways to higher wages and career opportunities.

• Vendors paid more than $25,000 per year by the city of Berkeley must comply with the Living Wage Ordinance. To comply, vendors must pay a living wage (set by the city), provide health benefits or cash in lieu and provide paid time off. Learn more about this and other vendor requirements, or read the full ordinance. Vendors must have a Berkley city business license. Effective July 1, 2022, vendors must pay employees $17.41 per hour plus a medical benefit equivalent to at least $2.89 per hour. If the employer does not provide the employee at least $2.89 per hour toward an employee medical benefits plan, the employer shall pay an hourly wage of not less than $20.30. Vendors must provide employees with at least 22 days off per year for sick leave, vacation or personal necessity; 12 of these days off must be compensated at the same wage as for a normal working day.

• Pacific Gateway, the workforce development board in Long Beach, California, implemented a minimum wage requirement of $15 per hour in 2018 for all Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act on-the-job training contracts to ensure that participants were being placed on a pathway to economic mobility. Each year the hourly rate for on-the-job training is reviewed and approved by the board based on current economic conditions.

• The workboard implemented the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's on-the-job training (OJT) policies, which require that the individual participating in OJT receive the prevailing wage for the occupation. These policies also require that, for new hires, the job must be anticipated to last at least one year following the end of  OJT and provide for at least 35 hours of work per week.

• The Living Wage Ordinance, which includes the Business Subsidy Act, requires covered projects to create at least one full-time living wage job for each $25,000 of business subsidy. State law contains many exemptions. The city places its own requirements on subsidies valued at $100,000 or more and with the intention, or end result, of creating or keeping jobs. Living wage rates effective January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022, are 130% of poverty for a family of four without health coverage provided by the employer and 110% of poverty for a family of four with health coverage provided by the employer.