Maryland minimum wage climbs to $13.25 an hour in 2023

BALTIMORE -- Maryland workers making the least that's legally allowed in the state can expect a raise in the new year. Ours is one of 23 states to increase its minimum wage in 2023.

The state's minimum wage climbed Sunday from $12.50 an hour to $13.25 an hour for companies with 15 or more employees. It's set to continue to rise every year until it reaches $15 an hour by 2025.

Smaller employers will see a slightly smaller increase in what they need to pay employees. The current $12.20 per hour minimum wage for employers with 14 or fewer employees will increase to $12.80.

The minimum wage for tipped employees will stay at $3.63 per hour. That amount and tips combined must equal the state's minimum wage.

In 2019, state lawmakers overrode Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of the bill that will increase the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2025.

The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since July 2009. Since then, the nation's baseline pay has lost more than one-fourth its purchasing power. When factoring in inflation, today's minimum wage hasn't been worth this little since the 1950s, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.