ANNAPOLIS, Md. — It began with a roundtable of union reps and business leaders, followed by testimony in the economic matters committee.
"Marylanders cannot wait until 2025 for a $15 an hour minimum wage," said Governor Wes Moore.
The governor's bill not only accelerates the minimum wage, increase it and ties it to the consumer price index.
RELATED: Maryland lawmakers push to accelerate $15 minimum wage increase from 2025 to 2023
If the index goes up, so will wages with a cap of five percent each year.
It's one of Governor Moore's top priorities of the bill.
"We think that being able to add the indexing on isn't only good for the workers, it's good for the employers. So we think that the indexing component and adding that on is an important part of the bill," Moore explained.
He didn't say if legislators pulled that section of the bill if he'd then veto the law. Simply saying he's looking forward to the full bill hitting his desk.
This afternoon's roundtable gave him the chance to answer some questions from Maryland business and union leaders. All seven of the people on the panel were in favor of the governor's proposal.
Some were even a major part of the original fight for 15.
Not everyone is a fan of his decision.
"Going from the state's current minimum wage to $15 an hour by October 1 puts a lot of businesses and their employees behind the eight ball," said Mike O'Holloran, National Federation of Independent Businesses.
He also says the bill could cause businesses to choose other states to settle in.
"You know we're competing with Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania and a lot of these places when business owners look to either open a new shop or relocate to Maryland, they're going to look at laws like this and they're going to look at their bottom line for labor costs and say it's going to be cheaper for me to go to Delaware, Pennsylvania or Virginia, so I'm just going to go there," said O'Holloran.
Governor Moore's team says the evidence from other state's shows economic growth doesn't slow down.
The governor made clear in his testimony this is a major step in his push to end child poverty in Maryland.
Attached below is the statement from Delegates Ryan Nawrocki and Kathy Szeliga regarding to Governor Moore's minimum wage legislation:
