Immediate news is tomorrow night's Montgomery County Council hearing on a push for a $15 minimum wage and a raise for tipped workers as well. All the info you need to make yourself heard is here -- plus, how to get email notifications of the PM BlogSpace weekly memo.

Welcome to the Progressive Maryland weekly memo for Monday, June 20 – a look at the week ahead, and more…

A hearing is set before the Montgomery County Council TOMORROW, June 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Rockville on a package of increases to the county’s minimum wage. A successful PM meeting last week set activists on course to make that hearing and represent in favor of a $15 per hour minimum wage – including tipped workers.

Last week the DC Council and Mayor OKed a partial victory on including tipped workers in a future minimum wage increase. Montgomery now seems headed for a similar two-tier increase, with tipped workers’ minimum set lower, but PM activists plan to push for $15 per hour for all. DC’s move raises tipped workers’ minimum from the current, pathetic $2.77 per hour to $5 by 2020 but we can do better than that. Plan now to go to the June 21 public hearing before the Montgomery County Council.

By organizing our members throughout the county, we helped pass paid sick leave last summer, improved wage enforcement, and now we're going to make sure every Montgomery County worker is paid a fair living wage. 

In Montgomery, tipped workers currently only receive a substandard minimum wage of $4.00 per hour and must make up the rest in tips which may fluctuate wildly based on individual customers, the shifts assigned, or even the weather outside.

Women make up 60% of all tipped workers and 70% of servers, so the current tip structure serves as legal wage inequity. Furthermore, 90% of women working as servers report being sexually harassed by customers and two-thirds experienced sexual harassment from a supervisor. Many feel pressured to sexualize themselves on the job to increase tips.

 Sign the petition to urge the Council to include tipped workers.

FOR EXAMPLE: last week we published these blogs…

GETTING MONEY OUT OF ELECTIONS IN HOWARD – Howard County can become the second Maryland county to choose limited public financing for elections and begin to get the influence of big money out of local elections. Voters can opt for fair elections on the November ballot.
Find this blog at http://www.progressivemaryland.org/howard_county_voters_can_choose_public_financing_for_elections_in_november

Last week’s Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for June 16: Fight for Fifteen! Find this blog at http://www.progressivemaryland.org/progressive_maryland_weekly_memo_for_june_16_fight_for_fifteen

AND IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM, we posted these blogs in the previous week:

The crushing news from Orlando brought a reminder of the intersection of hate speech and the Wild West access to lethal weapons (thanks to the NRA and others) and what can be done to change that disruptive combination.

Both last week’s Weekly Memo and a special alert about the Progressive Prince George’s membership meeting keyed the week’s activities.

Stick with Progressive Maryland to stay informed, and with our Facebook page to stay updated as the primary election approaches. As always, the hard day to day work of citizenship and fighting for ordinary people is on the table. Power yields nothing without a demand, Frederick Douglass said, and being organized gives us power to fight back.

AND REMEMBER THIS BLOGSPACE IS FOR THE PROGRESSIVE VOICES OF MARYLAND. Want to include your voice? Send a submission, or questions, to the moderator at [email protected]