By Jean Marbella
The Baltimore Sun, January 11, 2014
... Whether Maryland should raise its minimum wage above the current federal floor of $7.25 an hour is an issue that promises to dominate the legislative session that began last week in Annapolis — and have major implications for employers and employees alike. ...
Raise Maryland's proposal would gradually increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016, and would increase the rate for tipped workers to 70 percent of that. The group will hold a rally to launch its legislative battle on Tuesday on Lawyers' Mall in Annapolis. ...
A successful formula
That is also how Amanda Rothschild views the effect of better wages as well. She is an owner of Charmington's, a cafe that opened in September 2010 on North Howard Street in Baltimore, and supports the efforts to raise the minimum wage, even though she has always paid above it, even for tipped employees.
The 15-member staff currently makes $8 an hour, which she is considering raising, and Rothschild estimates that tips add another $3.
"We felt it would foster a better employer-employee relationship," Rothschild said. "And there are a lot of hidden costs to keeping wages as low as possible."
On of them is high turnover, which she said can sap resources, given the amount of time it takes to hire and get new workers up to speed. She is proud that about three-fourths of her staff has been at the cafe for more than a year, and about 60 percent for at least two years. About eight of them are co-owners, and employees can invest in the cafe monetarily or through work hours.
A happy, invested staff contributes to the kind of restaurant she envisioned, and feels she has achieved — a place filled with regulars, where staff and customers generally know each others' names. That may not be possible, Rothschild said, if employees feel underpaid or have to work other jobs.
The formula is working for Charmington's, she said, which has made enough of a profit that the partners are able to pay themselves a salary.
"It was a journey at first. It was a learning process," Rothschild said of the way the cafe operates. "It was almost like an experiment: Will this work?
"I can say: It does."
Copyright 2014 The Baltimore Sun