Baltimore Workers
Maryland lets restaurants pay tipped workers a cash wage of $3.63 an hour. In a city where MIT puts a single adult’s cost of living at $21.03 an hour and a single parent’s at $37.77. One Fair Wage is organizing for a $25 floor for every Baltimore worker and an end to the subminimum wage.
The fight
Baltimore paychecks, Baltimore prices. One Fair Wage is organizing in Baltimore for two things at once: a $25 wage floor for every worker in the city, and an end to the subminimum wage for tipped workers — full minimum wage, with tips on top.
The near-term vehicle is a bill already in front of the City Council. OFW and its partners are backing Baltimore City Councilman John Bullock’s bill to phase out the tipped subminimum wage while building Council support for a $25 floor.
What tipped workers are paid here
Maryland’s minimum wage has been $15.00 an hour since January 1, 2024. No further increase is scheduled under state law, and Baltimore City sets no local minimum above the state floor.
Tipped workers are carved out of that floor. A Maryland employer may pay a cash wage of $3.63 an hour as long as tips bring the worker to $15. Workers under 18 may be paid 85 percent of the minimum. When a shift is slow, the pay is whatever the tips were.
The bill in committee
Council Bill 25-0058, Fair Wages for Tipped Employees, was introduced in April 2025 by Councilman John Bullock. It would raise the cash wage for tipped workers in steps until they are paid the full minimum wage, with tips on top. It was referred to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, where it sits; the Council’s legislative record showed no hearing and no vote as of September 2026. A predecessor bill died at the end of the previous Council term without a hearing.
What the city already does
Baltimore already sets a wage floor for one group of workers. Contractors and subcontractors on City service contracts must pay $17.17 an hour as of July 1, 2026, set by the Baltimore City Wage Commission and covering about 3,500 workers. It applies only to work under City service contracts. It is not a citywide wage floor.
Who’s in
About 30 labor and community organizations, co-led by One Fair Wage, are organizing for a $25 floor and an end to the tipped subminimum wage in Baltimore.
Three reports to start with
Ending Legacy of Slavery — Maryland
OFW’s Maryland report tying the subminimum tipped wage to the state’s restaurant staffing crisis and its long racial history.
Read the report →Baltimore: The Mothers Who Serve Us Deserve a Raise
Who Baltimore’s tipped workforce actually is, and what the subminimum wage costs the women in it.
Read the report →Maryland Workers Demand One Fair Wage
OFW surveys of Maryland tipped workers — 96% of 170 surveyed, and 95% of an expanded sample of 232, back the full minimum wage with tips on top.
Read the report →$3.63 an Hour Is Not a Wage.
Join the Baltimore campaign for $25 for all and an end to the subminimum wage for tipped workers.
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