This report from the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University presented the economic consequences of raising the minimum wage rate in the State of Maryland from $7.25 to $9.00, to $10.00, and to $12.00. This research that was conducted using the REMI PI+ model found that raising the minimum wage in Maryland would increase the price of consumer goods, reduce employment and personal income, weaken the state’s competitive position relative to adjacent states having lower labor costs, slow the growth of gross state product, and slow population growth and weaken real estate values. Understanding the associated economic costs resulting from legislatively raising minimum wage rates in an open market economy is essential to achieving a policy outcome that is in the interest of the state’s businesses and citizens as they will be the ones who will have to absorb the costs of raising the minimum wage rates of the state’s hourly employees.
George Mason University – The Impact of Raising the Minimum Wage on the Maryland Economy [full PDF]
