Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett on Monday vetoed a bill to raise the county’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, but he left the door open for compromise on the legislation.
“I support the effort to move toward $15 per hour over an appropriate timeframe and under certain conditions,” Leggett said in a memorandum to the County Council. The council on Jan. 17 passed the minimum wage legislation by a 5-4 vote, one vote shy of what’s needed to override a veto.
In the memorandum, Leggett outlined four conditions under which he would sign such legislation: the completion of an economic study on the wage increase’s effects, an exemption in the legislation for small businesses, an exemption for youth workers and a delay of the bill’s implementation until 2022.
The minimum wage in Montgomery County is $10.75 an hour. It will increase to $11.50 in July, but is not scheduled to increase beyond that.
