NS ORD-1997-045 Living Wage Ordinance

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APPENDIX 5. Figure 1: Living Wage Earnings and the Poverty Level: How the Wages Compare 20,000 18,000 16,000 —Feder Poverty Line for 14,000 _ v a Family of Four _ E 12,000 10,000 3 8,000 C 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 $4.75 $5.15 $6.10 $6.60 $7.10 $7.70 - Hourly Wages Figure 1: This figure compares the current ($4.75) and fttntre ($5.15) federal minimum wages and Baltimore's living wage increments to the current povety threshold for a family of four. The Baltimore Living Wage ordinance projects the earnings of the lowest paid city service contract employees to increase to $7.70 per hour in 1998. This amount would raise a family of four above the current federal poverty line of $15.569.00, but will lose some value due to inflation. A city contractor working 40 hrs per week, 52 weeks a year at Baltimore's current living wage of$6.60 per hour, earns a yearly salary of$13,728.00 or 22% Iess than the federal poverty level for a family of four. The current hourly wage of poverty-line earners is $7.49 per hour (Source:Bureau of the Census.) The Costs,of the Living Wage Ordinance to the City This study focuses on contracts whose labor costs have increased or are expected to increase as a result of the living wage ordinance. The City's Bureau of Management and Budget Research compiled a list of the types of contracts that are or will be affected by the ordinance, as well as the dollar amount of all the contracts. The Bureau determined that the total value of contracts falling under the wage requirement was $26,811,544 in December 1995. We obtained full or partial information on 46 contracts involving 75 companies; others have yet to be rebid under the living wage requirements. Those contracts for which information on pre- and post- ordinance (rebid under the living wage law) costs were available are presented in Table 2. The value of these contracts is $19,326,066.39, or 72% of the value of those contracts affected by the ordinance.