By John Wagner and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 18, 2006; A01

Maryland lawmakers voted yesterday to raise the state's minimum wage by $1 an hour, delivering a pay increase to more than 50,000 workers who toil on the bottom rung of the employment ladder.

The Democrat-led Senate voted 30 to 17 to override Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of the legislation, which will in 30 days officially increase the minimum wage in Maryland to $6.15 an hour, $1 more than what is mandated by federal law. The House, also led by Democrats, voted to override Ehrlich (R) last week.

Lawmakers brushed aside concerns from Ehrlich that the move would prompt a small-business revolt and shove low-income laborers out of jobs. Yesterday, he called it "a job killer for the most marginal worker."

The lawmakers' action means Maryland will join 17 states and the District in guaranteeing a higher minimum wage than federal law requires. The District's minimum is $7 an hour. In Virginia, the rate is pegged to the federal rate.

The veto override was the second in the opening days of the 2006 General Assembly session to draw a bolder line between the two parties as they head into a hotly contested election season, a split that follows a traditional storyline for each party.

Democrats billed the passage of the wage bill, coupled with legislation approved last week requiring Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health benefits, as a way to plant their party firmly on the side of working-class voters. The governor, by contrast, wants to show his party's unyielding commitment to the business community.

"These two votes have become two more reasons for businesses not to come to Maryland," said Ron Wineholt, vice president for government affairs for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, who said the symbolic effect of both bills extends well beyond the people they will directly affect.

Democrats countered that both measures were narrowly targeted to help some of the most vulnerable of the state's nearly 3 million workers.

"If you want to have a stable society where hard-working poor people can support their families, you have to do things like this," said House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery).

Both bills were part of a series of rapid-fire votes cast in the opening weeks of the legislative session that could drive up Democratic turnout on Election Day. Yesterday also brought passage of two vetoed bills that proponents said will make it easier for people to vote. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1, any increased turnout is expected to benefit Democrats.

One bill approved over the governor's veto will expand the number of days polling places will stay open, allowing voting as early as a week before the election. Another will criminalize any effort to trick or intimidate potential voters from going to the polls.

Republicans criticized both measures on the House floor yesterday, saying they could open the door to voter fraud.

During floor debate, Democrats said it is unlikely that the Republican-led Congress, which last raised the federal minimum wage in 1997, would offer assistance to low-income workers soon. Maryland's new rate will take effect in 30 days.

"If you leave this to the federal government, it's not going to be done," said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

In an analysis of the bill last year, nonpartisan legislative aides estimated that 55,300 residents would receive a raise because of the bill. Advocates say a "ripple effect" would extend beyond that, with employers likely to bump up pay to those making slightly more than the minimum wage as well.

A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington suggested that 173,000 Marylanders could benefit.

Republican resistance during yesterday's debate was far less spirited than in last week's tug of war over the "Wal-Mart bill," which has the potential to affect benefits received by the company's 17,000 Maryland employees.

Sen. E.J. Pipkin (Queen Anne's), the only Republican to speak against the wage bill, said it would force employers to shed low-income jobs.

"We cannot overturn the law of supply and demand," Pipkin told his colleagues. "We've made employment at the lowest levels more expensive. We'll get less of it."

In his veto message last spring, Ehrlich called passage of the bill "a bad decision that elevates politics over economics and ultimately hurts the people it claims to help."

He said small businesses would have to raise costs for consumers or fire low-wage workers, arguing that "more than half of minimum wage workers nationally are of high school or college age, and minimum wage jobs for them are a means by which to enter the labor market and acquire skills necessary for career advancement."

Both leading Democratic candidates for governor strongly supported the bill. And like the Wal-Mart bill, it had backing from labor unions.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) made clear as he praised yesterday's vote that he believes these votes break along class and party lines.

Nationally, minimum-wage workers are concentrated in the leisure and hospitality industries. About one-quarter of minimum-wage earners are younger than 20, accordingly to legislative analysts, and slightly more than half are younger than 25.

"There's a growing disparity between the working class and the wealthy in Maryland," Busch said, adding that the average salary of a corporate chief executive rose 12 percent last year. "We're just looking for some fairness for the little guy here."

During debate on the measure in the House, Del. Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Baltimore) said it was "shameful" that the wage has not been increased in nine years. "Anybody recall what a gas-electric bill was in 1997?" asked McIntosh, who then held up her home heating bill, which had nearly doubled.